Maria Aubrey B.

Villamor April 19, 2018

I-E Human Rights

What I Suggest As a New Human Rights Mechanism: Public Interest Litigation, Information
Commission and Anti-Graft and Corruption Commission

“An intensive human rights education for all communities needs to be provided to overcome the old
prejudices.”

- Ruth Manorama

Human rights are rights that are inherent, universal, inalienable and indivisible to which we
all are equally entitled without any discrimination as to race, religion, color and nationality. As
emphasized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, we are all equally entitled to
our human rights without discrimination and the principle of universality of human rights is
the cornerstone of international human rights law. The Philippines being a diverse country with
its multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious population, the protection of human rights
is the sine qua non for peaceful existence. The establishment of Commission on Human Rights;
implementation of human rights under the 19878 Constitution; application of human rights in
the domestic courts; implementation through a legislative and public policy framework; and
among others are one of the mechanisms which embody the promotion and preservation of
human rights in the Philippines. As an aspiring lawyer I would like to suggest three (3)
mechanisms that may be added or included to the proposed new Constitution. Theses
mechanisms are public interest litigation, information commission and anti-graft and
corruption commission.

The three mechanisms that I enumerated are coming from the means on how Bangladesh
combat human rights violations. Public interest Litigation here in the Philippines should be
strengthened since it was felt that the interests of the Filipino people are undermined by the
government. In such a situation, the court directly accepts the public good. It is a new legal
horizon in which court of law can initiate and enforce action to serve and secure significant
Public Interest. This PIL is one of the significant strategies of judicial activism which must be
adopted by the Philippines or thus, be improved. It is an effective tool for protecting human
rights under a simplified complaint system which has entered into the legal system for the first
time in the case of Kazi Mukhlesur Rahman v. Bangladesh. The concept of Public Interest Litigation
is in accordance with the 1987 Constitution, Article XIII (Social Justice and Human Rights). It
must be emphasized that in PIL, the person filing the petition must prove to the satisfaction of
the court that the petition is being filed for the public interest and not as a frivolous litigation for
pecuniary gain. The benefits of the PIL are it give a wider description to the right to equality,
life and personality; functions as an effective instrument for changes in the society or social
welfare; and through public interest litigation, any public or person can seek remedy on behalf
of the oppressed class by introducing a PIL.

Next is the Anti-Graft and Corruption Commission which has a goal to remove the
corruption in various offices and ensure the rights of people. Through this commission, it
combats such controversies, conduct inquiries and investigations, file and conduct cases, review
legal measures for preventing corruption, demand statement of assets and liabilities and seize
property in excess of known sources of income. In order to ensure that this commission be free
from anomalies, the government should properly create qualifications such as being a member
of the bar with 10 years of experience having a record of consistency on being a good moral
person.

Lastly, the Information Commission will be responsible for overseeing the compliance with
the Article III, Sec. 7 which is the right to information. This commission will be entrusted to
issue directives to authorities for preservation, publicity and management of information, etc.
The implementation mechanism of human rights in the national sphere appears to be difficult to
maintain but I believe that nothing is impossible and through the eagerness of the people in
ensuring social justice and security as well as peace, this commission will be successful.

Consequently, these mechanisms that I suggested were based upon my own experiences
way back on college in which I was able to witness such situations wherein we were restricted
of asking such questions, questions that were a matter of public interest. As a former political
science student, we analyze such information of the public authorities such as SALN and
including the disbursement funds whether all of which were consumed for the benefit of the
people and not for the own pockets of public officials. It is indeed necessary that the youth of
today should be able to access such information that is a matter of public interest and to be
inculcated about what social justice really means. As what Ruth Manorama said, “An intensive
human rights education for all communities needs to be provided to overcome the old
prejudices”. Allow me to reiterate that nothing is impossible with these suggestions as long as
such qualifications of the members are observed and monitoring be conducted to these
mechanisms.