RP LEGISLATORS SUCCESSFULLY PUSHED
BURMA RESOLUTION IN IPU - PIMENTEL

The Philippine delegation to the 117th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) General Assembly in Geneva successfully pushed through a resolution asking the United Nations and the UN security council to "take appropriate measures to end the violence in Myanmar (Burma)" and for its military authorities "to respect the democratic rights and liberties" of its people.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. made this report to the Senate on behalf of the delegation headed by Senate President Manny Villar. The delegation attended the sessions of the IPU assembly and meetings of the Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CHRP) from October 4 to 10. The CHRP also designated Pimentel to look into human rights violations involving parliamentarians in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon.

Pimentel reported that with the permission of the Senate president he had the "pleasure of casting the 18 votes of the Philippines solidly for the Burma resolution." The IPU had debated whether the Burma issue or the Iraqi crisis should be considered the "emergency item" of the assembly.

The Burma item, backed by the Asia-Pacific countries, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), many European, North and South American delegations, won over the Iraqi item backed by India, China and many Middle Eastern countries.

"It was a major victory for us to have gotten the resolution approved by the drafting committee with its major thrusts intact," Pimentel reported to the Senate.

In addition to calling on Burma to end violence and respect the democratic rights of its people, the resolution also asked the UN to ban arms sale and economic aid to Myanmar unless its authorities stop its repressions of the Burmese people.

The same resolution asked ASEAN to warn Myanmar that it would suspend its membership in ASEAN unless it cooperates with UN moves to stop the atrocities of the regime.

Before the IPU plenary approved the resolution, Pimentel made a power point presentation of the Bumese issue in which he detailed how the military junta in Burma "brutalizes the people."

The members of the official delegation to the IPU general assembly were Senate President Villar as head, Senate Minority Leader Pimentel, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Jamby Madrigal and Loren Legarda, House Representatives Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza.

In his report, Senator Pimentel said that Senator Legarda "attracted a lot of attention from the delegates with her eloquence and the substance of her short peroratin about the need to define the IPU stand on the current crisis in Burma. She even caught the approving eye of IPU President Fernando Casini who posed for a picture with her."

Loren also participated in the meetings of the IPU committees on migration and trafficking of women and children. Loren, Ocampo and Pimentel cast the Philippine votes abstaining on the issue of African countries' representation in the governing council of the IPU.

In his account, Pimentel also dwelt lengthily on the report of the IPU Human Rights committee on its investigation into the cases in 32 countries involving parliamentarians who have been murdered, detained and tortured, divested of their seats and immunity or otherwise subjected to harassment by their governments.

Many of these parliamentarians in trouble resorted to the writ of amparo to get relief, especially 57 in Ecuador who were dismissed from Congress. The writ however proved unavailing, and the IPU human rights committee delegation that investigated the incident on site recommended that Ecuador should "depoliticize" its judicial system to make it more independent. In Peru and other Latin American countries where the writ of amparo originated, the writ also proved "unavailing," reported Pimentel.

Pimentel said he closely followed up the report concerning the use of the writ of amparo as a remedy against human rights violations, such as illegal arrests, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, because of the recent move of the Philippine Supreme Court to adopt the writ on behalf of human rights victims in the Philippines.

"The writ of amparo may eventually prove useful in the protection of human rights and civil liberties of our people," Pimentel declared in his report to the Senate. "Still, the experience of other countries in the use of the writ could be most instructive."

Pimentel said the IPU human rights committee also examined documents and met with some complainants and witnesses in human rights cases, and heard the explanations of official delegations from Belarus, Congo, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt.

The committee later designated Pimentel to head a delegation of committee members to visit responsible officials of Sri Lanka and discuss the cases of parliamentarians who were either in prison or were under threat of being killed or maimed.