Humans rights were a big issue during martial law.

Of course they were for the simple reason that they can’t go together.

In fact, the first casualty of martial law – at least the 1972 vintage -- was human rights.

Under a democratic setting, human rights is the first order of business.

So, pray tell us, why is it that since the restoration of democracy in 1986, HR cases in the country persisted, with the bulk of them widely believed to be state-sponsored?

Not even the late democracy icon and former President Corazon Aquino was able to curb HR violations.

How can we then expect her son and now President Aquino be expected to do so?      

And so were not surprised to hear from the New York-based Human Rights Watch report that the Aquino administration has made little progress in addressing impunity for serious HR violations despite promises of reform.

Following the country’s  Universal Periodic Review submission, the HR watchdog pointed to impunity for unexplained killings and enforced disappearances, “private armies” and state-backed militias, violations of international humanitarian law, “death squads,” sexual and reproductive rights and migrant workers’ rights as among the country’s main concerns.

Scrutiny of the Philippines is part of the UPR, a new UN mechanism used in assessing the HR record of all United Nations member- states.

The HR watchdog said unexplained killings of leftist activists and petty criminals continue, with the government failing to address involvement by security forces and local officials.

Human Rights Watch noted that the country is a multiparty democracy with an elected president and Legislature, a thriving civil society sector, and a vibrant media, “but several key institutions, including the civilian and military justice systems, remain weak, and the military and police still commit human rights violations with impunity”.

In the previous UPR in 2008, the country committed to implement Recommendation 6 to “completely eliminate torture and extrajudicial killings” and to “intensify its efforts to carry out investigations and prosecutions on extrajudicial killings and punish those responsible”.

But it has not yet implemented the recommendation to sign and ratify the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Although the number of killings has decreased since President Aquino took office in June 2010, Human Rights Watch documented in mid-2011 at least seven unexplained killings and three enforced disappearances during his administration, with significant evidence of military involvement.

The group reported that a damaging climate of impunity persists in the Philippines. Out of hundreds of unexplained killings and enforced disappearances since 2001, there have been only seven successfully prosecuted cases resulting in the conviction of 12 people.