The PNP's Task Force Usig (TFU), responsible for investigating and monitoring killings of media members, labor activists and foreigners, received reports of 16 new cases from January to August (based on criteria different from those of the CHR): cases brought to the public prosecutor's office, seven cases were still under investigation and one case was settled amicably. The PNP reports to the DILG and maintains internal peace and security in most of the country. The AFP Human Rights Office continued to monitor and review alleged human rights violations involving members of the military.
The police and military continued to routinely provide human rights training to their members, supplemented by training from the CHR. Detention: Long detention remained a problem, largely due to a dysfunctional justice system, although prison decongestion programs continued to alleviate some of the problem. According to this directive, the council is the lead agency in the implementation of the CIAC.
Respect for Civil Liberties, Including
The government did not restrict or terminate Internet access or censor online content, and there were no credible reports that the government monitored private online communication without proper legal authority. The law provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights. The constitution provides for freedom of movement within the country, travel abroad, immigration and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights.
The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in the provision. The government maintained its ban on employment-related travel to Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Syria and Uzbekistan. On February 27, the government lifted the ban on overseas Filipino workers being posted to Iraq, but the ban remained on domestic workers.
Four decades of conflict between the government and Muslim separatist groups, sporadic inter-clan fighting and natural disasters in Mindanao have generated significant internal displacement since October. Sometimes the government encouraged IDPs to return home, but they were often reluctant to do so due to insecurity and lack of food. Safe Country of Origin/Transit: The government partnered with UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations to help transit refugees across the country.
In the UNHCR and the government of the Philippines undertook the mapping of persons of Indonesian descent at risk of statelessness in Southern Mindanao. In 2013, the government estimated that 800,000 ethnic Filipinos, a large percentage of whom were de facto stateless, in Sabah under the sovereignty of.
Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
Many were born in the Sulu provinces but had worked in Sabah for many years, in some cases decades. The government used a party-list system designed to ensure representation of marginalized and underrepresented sections of society to elect 20 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives.
Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government
Financial Disclosure: The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Government Officials and Employees requires all government officials and employees to submit under oath their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth and disclose their personal business interests and financial connections, as well as those of their spouses and unmarried persons children living in their households. Confidentiality is punishable by imprisonment for up to five years, or a fine of up to 5,000 pesos ($115), or both, and, at the discretion of the court, disqualification from holding public office. Public access to information: The law provides for the right to information about matters of public interest, but there are no definitions of procedures, fees and deadlines for such access; no exceptions for denied entry; no appeal procedures;
Some government departments posted contracts and bid documents online for public viewing, but overall, government information remained unavailable during the year. The fishermen pleaded not guilty to charges of violating two provisions of the Philippines' fisheries code, including illegally harvesting 489 endangered turtles, before a special environmental court in the western province of Palawan.
Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
The law provides for the right to information on matters of public interest, but there are no definitions of procedures, fees and deadlines for such access; there are no exceptions for denying access; there are no appeal processes; and there are no penalties for officials who fail to disclose legally available data. Governmental Human Rights Bodies: HRC continued to fulfill its constitutional mandate to protect and promote human rights; investigate all human rights. violations, including those requested by NGOs; and monitor the government's compliance with international human rights treaty obligations. However, according to the CHR, monitoring and investigating alleged violations continued to face difficulties due to insufficient resources.
Approximately three-quarters of the country's 42,000 villages had human rights action centers that coordinated with CHR regional offices. However, the CHR continued to believe that it lacked sufficient funds and staff to investigate and pursue all cases presented to its regional and subregional offices. The Office of the Ombudsman is an independent agency with jurisdiction to handle complaints about all public officials and employees.
The government amended the committee's responsibilities to include the compilation of the government's submission for the UN's Universal Periodic Review. In April, the Regional Human Rights Commission, a constitutionally mandated body tasked with monitoring alleged abuses in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (Bangsamoro), received its first government funding and began hiring staff. The House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Human Rights and Justice continued to pass bills protecting rights, but many bills remained pending as of August.
Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
Various individuals and religious groups filed 15 separate petitions with the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the law. Discrimination: By law, but not always in practice, women continued to have most of the rights and protections enjoyed by men. The National Federation of Students of the Philippines has cited the rising cost of education as one of the factors influencing the increase in school dropout rates.
Of the 3,661 child abuse victims DSWD offices provided services to in June, DSWD identified 232 as victims of sexual exploitation, including victims of cyber pornography. One NGO reported that the government still had limited resources to help persons with disabilities find work, and that such persons had limited options if potential employers violated their rights, due to the financial barriers to litigation. The DSWD operated two assisted living centers in the Manila region and five community-based vocational centers for persons with disabilities across the country.
Disabled people often begged for donations on the streets, an indication of their limited means of survival. Federal law authorizes the COMELEC to establish accessible polling centers exclusively for the disabled and senior citizens. However, many disabled people did not vote in the 2013 midterm elections due to a lack of accessible polling places.
The Non-Governmental Legal Network for Real Elections reported that only 82,000 of the 365,000 registered persons with disabilities were able to vote during the May 2013 elections, a much lower turnout than the general population. According to the NGO National Alliance of Indigenous People's Organizations in the Philippines, only some of the country's government units fulfilled the long-standing legal requirement for mandatory representation of indigenous people in policy-making bodies and local legislative councils. The law prohibits discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS and provides basic health and social services for them.
Nevertheless, there was still anecdotal evidence of discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients in the.
Worker Rights
Strikes in the private sector are legal, although unions are required to make strike announcements, respect mandatory cooling-off periods, and obtain union approval. Labor rights advocates continued to criticize the government for maintaining definitions of jurisdiction in the national interest that were broader than international. It primarily acts as a forum for tripartite advice and consultation between organized labor, employers and government in the United States.
The non-governmental Center for Trade Unions and Human Rights claimed that this practice led to a decline in the number of unions and workers covered by collective agreements. The government continued awareness activities, especially in the provinces, in an effort to prevent forced labour. Unions reported continued poor compliance with the law, due in part to the prevalence of forced labor in the informal sector and the lack of government capacity to inspect labor practices in that sector.
The government imposed fines and instituted criminal prosecutions for violations of the law in the formal sector, such as in manufacturing. Cases reported to DOLE centered in the service and agricultural sectors, particularly in the fishing and sugar industries. Minimum wages in the non-agricultural sector were highest in the National Capital Region, where the average minimum daily wage rate was 448 pesos ($10.21).
The lowest minimum wage rates were in the Ilocos region, where the daily non-plantation agricultural wage was 213 pesos ($4.85). DOLE's Bureau of Working Conditions monitors and inspects compliance with labor laws in all sectors, including formal sector workers, non-traditional workers and informal workers, and inspects SEZs and businesses located there. Some media outlets continued to report on challenges in the implementation and enforcement of the law on domestic workers, including the tedious registration process, the additional financial burden on employers, and the difficulty in monitoring employers' compliance.
The DOLE acknowledged that insufficient inspection resources continue to hamper its ability to effectively investigate labor law violations, particularly in the informal sector and in some 95,750 businesses with 10 to 199 workers.
