THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE
PHILIPPINES
on the Occasion of the Book Launching of the
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD):
“Reclaiming Stolen Lives”
SEAMEO INNOTECH, Commonwealth Ave.,
Diliman, Quezon City
29 August 2008
delivered by
LEILA M. DE LIMA
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
Good morning.
First
of all, I would like to thank the Asian Federation Against Involuntary
Disappearances (AFAD) for inviting me today. As you may all know, the
fight against involuntary or enforced disappearances and other forms of
government-sponsored human rights violations, such as torture and
extrajudicial killings, are some of the first advocacies I engaged in as
the new Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). This
occasion, therefore, has personal significance for me because it brings me
full circle to where I started, just as I am preparing to mark my first
100 days in office.
Let me begin by relating a piece of political and
literary history.
Around the year 1513 – after fourteen years of service
as a high-level functionary of the Florentine Republic, years that were
spent dealing with some of the leading figures of his age, the movers and
shakers of his world – Niccolò Machiavelli found himself dismissed from
office and banished from his beloved city. Having been suspected of
complicity to overthrow the Medici government, he was arrested, tortured
and – after his innocence was satisfactorily established – was released
and forced to retire to his meager farm, under circumstances of near
poverty.
For any other person, the incident would perhaps have
destroyed any lingering hope of reentering politics. Instead, Machiavelli
fought the idleness of his bucolic surroundings and produced one of he
best known and, perhaps, one of the most notorious pieces of political
literature, The Prince.
Allow me to quote some passages from this historic, yet
still highly relevant, treatise:
[P]eople are fickle by nature; and it is simple to
convince them of something but difficult to hold them in that conviction;
and, therefore, affairs should be managed in such a way that when they no
longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.1
…
From this arises an argument: whether it is better to
be loved than feared. I reply that one should like to be both one and the
other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer
to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.2
…
You must, therefore know that there are two means of
fighting: one according to the laws, the other with force; the first way
is proper to man, the second to beasts; but because the first, in many
cases, is not sufficient, it becomes necessary to have recourse to the
second.3
I described Machiavelli’s work as being still highly
relevant – 495 years later – because, consciously or not, leaders of the
modern era are still invoking his thesis – “that if statecraft was to be
practiced successfully, conventional morality has to be set aside”
4 – in sanctioning
their deeds for “reasons of state.” As a matter of fact, it has even been
reported that former President Ferdinand E. Marcos was a keen follower of
this Machiavellian precept. Regardless of the accuracy of such a report,
the connection was evidently made in an effort to account for why he chose
to rule the way he did, and to rationalize the commission of the violent
acts associated with his regime – which were not only prevalent but,
indeed, were so systematic that it exhibited an utter disregard for human
rights.
Regrettably, instead of being relegated to the category
of painful memories, the threat of the atrocities that characterized the
Marcos regime still looms real and large in our national consciousness. We
need only open our television sets, our radios or newspapers in order to
realize that, to a certain degree, incidents of involuntary disappearances
still occur in just about every corner of these 7,000 islands.
I need not belabor this point by quoting statistics.
The function of providing a comprehensive, in-depth and accurate report on
the status of enforced disappearances in the Philippines is better
discharged by the singular book the AFAD is launching today.
Which brings me to the reason I am here today.
I was invited to the launching of the book
Reclaiming Stolen Lives, by the request of the AFAD, to deliver a
message on behalf of the Commission on Human Rights to inspire people “to
continue the difficult work for truth, justice, redress and the
reconstruction of the historical memory of the disappeared.”
You have bestowed a great honor upon me by giving me
such a solemn task to fulfill. And, while
ordinarily I would have been more than happy to oblige your request, I’m
afraid that I must humbly decline. I must decline because I feel that it
is imperative for me to point out that it is you – the Asian Federation
Against Involuntary Disappearance, and other organizations and advocates
like you – who inspire and motivate me to report to the office and
discharge my functions as the Chairperson of the CHR each and every day.
I have had the privilege of addressing you once before.
In fact, the speech I delivered last May 30, on the occasion of the
Forum on Enforced Disappearances organized by the AFAD and the Ateneo
Human Rights Center, was the very first speech I delivered as the
Chairperson of the Fourth Commission. Obviously, therefore, you are aware
that I am still a rookie when it comes to Human Rights advocacy. In fact,
I will just be celebrating my first 100 days in office some time next
week. I am in a fine position, therefore, to observe just how tedious
human rights advocacy is. Literally, each day presents a new challenge to
face, a new human rights issue to address, and new faces, names,
organizations and advocacies to get acquainted with.
From the rights of indigenous peoples, of internally
displaced persons, of women and children, of persons with disabilities, to
the right to food, the right to self-determination, the right to be
protected against illegal demolitions, and so forth – it’s almost
impossible to keep track of everything that is happening and to remain on
top of every development. This is why I have come to greatly appreciate
organizations like the AFAD. Not only do you devote your time, resources
and considerable efforts into giving the required attention to victims of
enforced disappearances, more importantly, perhaps, you provide national
human rights institutions like the CHR valuable insights about how to
approach these problems. You perform tasks that the Commission, much as we
would like to, could not, for different reasons, carry out effectively on
our own.
As a national human rights body, the Commission is
given the formidable mandate:
1. To protect and promote the human rights of all
people residing in the Philippines, and of Filipinos residing abroad,
especially the underprivileged and disadvantaged sectors of society;
2. To engage in sustained efforts in assisting persons
in their pursuit for justice, in orienting the agents of the state on
human rights responsibility and accountability, in advising the government
on the implementation of human rights standards, and in catalyzing
partnership and collaboration;
3. To monitor government’s compliance with its international treaty
obligations on human rights; and
4. To energize and engage civil society participation.
Considering that there are around 91.1 million
Filipinos living in the Philippines, and another estimated 11 million
living abroad – most of whom may be considered disadvantaged in one way or
another – it is not difficult to see why we run the risk of getting lost
in the statistics; of seeing numbers, instead of people; of losing sight
of the trees for the forest, and vice versa.
But organizations like yours, the AFAD, keep
institutions like the CHR on track. With your help, we see the people and
not just the statistics. You remove the anonymity that inevitably results
from reading reports, instead of hearing personal accounts from the
victims themselves or from their families. You keep the issues in the
forefront of people’s minds. You prevent society from becoming
anesthetized and apathetic to the atrocities committed against
individuals. You give voices to victims and their families. But most of
all, you rally people together. You make people realize that no one
individual or institution can do all the work. You make them realize that
the safekeeping of the peace and order of our nation cannot be entrusted
to anyone but ourselves.
If we are to put an end to problems like enforced
disappearances, we must all be vigilant. When we are vigilant – and
perpetrators know that we are vigilant and are prepared to fight for our
collective and individual rights – change will inevitably come.
After all, in the end, the perpetrators of these human
rights violations are just people. People with their own agenda. If we
eliminate the culture of impunity, promote accountability and, in general,
make it costly for them to continuously and systematically disregard human
rights, eventually the violence and the violations will stop.
But for the moment, Machiavelli’s beasts are still
among us. Villains who, by the light of day, might wear the colors of
honorable men but, under the cover of obscurity and emboldened by a sense
of impunity, are all merchants of death and violence who thrive on
people’s fears.
The key, therefore, is to reverse the course of things.
We must turn the table against them. They must fear us. We
must put in them the fear of being made accountable for their acts. To do
this, we must act as one. We must remain unfaltering and indefatigable.
The task is a never-ending one; for once we let down our guard, the beasts
will once again run loose. There is only one way to sustain such a battle:
by working collectively, augmenting each other’s resources and
complementing each other’s acts.
Thus, after obtaining a copy of Reclaiming Stolen
Lives, we must put to good use the information that was meticulously
and conscientiously gathered by the AFAD. Because once, there was a man
named Machiavelli who wrote a political treatise. He was a well-meaning
and loyal patriot. He saw the wretched conditions into which his country
had fallen and he tried to supply a solution. He observed his surroundings
and put his discoveries into writing. He discovered that the solution
required the confluence of virtù – bold and intelligent initiative
– and fortuna – the play of external forces. Five centuries later,
the world repaid his efforts by associating his name with evil and
duplicity. However, in retrospect, we must realize that his work, like any
other product of the human genius, is but an instrument. It is not
inherently evil or inherently virtuous. It was the manner in which people
after him used his ideas that gave rise to the notoriety.
In other words, his work was an instrument of change.
How people chose to interpret it determined whether it was to pave the way
to a change for the better or for worse.
The same could be said about this book AFAD is
launching. It is an instrument of change. We are the actors who will
decide how generations to come will judge the value of this book because,
to quote another popular book, “It is our choices… that show what we truly
are, far more than our abilities.”
That is all. I bid you a good morning, and
congratulations to AFAD on the launching of your book!
(Footnotes)
1 Chapter VI: Concerning New Principalities Which
are Acquired by One’s Own Arms and Ability.
2 Chapter XVII: Concerning Cruelty and Clemency, and
Whether It is Better to be Loved than Feared.
3 Chapter XVIIIConcerning the Way in Which Princes Should
Keep Faith.
4 Donno, Daniel in his Introduction to his translation of
The Prince.
