We welcome the news that our Chairperson Emeritus, and three-term former party-list representative Loretta Ann Rosales is seriously being considered by the Aquino government to head the Commission on Human Rights. We are glad that the new administration has taken special notice of Etta’s long experience and accomplishment as a seasoned human rights advocate confirming once again that AKBAYAN as a serious progressive political party is capable of producing top-notch leaders with utmost credibility and capacity to serve in public office.

However, this recent, news of her appointment was met with fierce opposition from a marginal political grouping that is motivated more by its ideological biases against Etta and AKBAYAN rather than by a sincere effort to make the institution more efficient in promoting human rights and securing justice for the abused . They hurled baseless and ridiculous accusations against Etta even going as far as labeling her “biased against human rights victims.”

To set the record straight, Etta’s reputation as a human rights defender from the time of the Marcos dictatorship up to the present is secure and untarnished. She has shown objectivity and openness in dealing with the intricacies of human rights and has repeatedly proven her firm and steady resolve to pursue and defend the people’s rights and freedoms.

If there is one thing Etta is guilty of, it is her fearless stance against human rights violations and her resolve to make perpetrators accountable, whether they are state or non-state actors. While others limited themselves to a narrow concept of human rights with the end view of pursuing vested political interests, Etta is unswerving in her commitment to the universality of human rights with the goal of providing all people their rights and freedom without distinction as to race, sex, political inclination, language, or religion.

Hence, it is only appropriate and judicious on the part of the Aquino government to seriously consider if not immediately appoint Etta to head the Human Rights Commission. The institution deserves the best. The people deserve no less.

FROM AKBAYAN MEDIA UNIT

Etta Rosales ’perfect’ as CHR chief, says Hontiveros

KIMBERLY JANE TAN, GMANews.TV

07/09/2010 | 04:50 PM

Former Akbayan party-list Rep. Loretta Ann “Etta" Rosales would be the perfect new Human Rights chief, says her fellow former congresswoman Risa Hontiveros.

The top position in the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) was recently vacated by Leila De Lima, who is now the Secretary of the Department of Justice.

Hontiveros says Rosales, who served as Akbayan representative from 1998 to 2007, “is more than qualified for the post.““The truth is, she is the perfect replacement for De Lima’s superb endeavor as the former head of the human rights commission,” Hontiveros said in a statement on Friday.

Hontiveros issued the statement after the human rights group Karapatan opposed the idea of President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III possibly appointing Rosales to the CHR.

Karapatan says Rosales once supported a compromise deal with the Marcoses, allegedly making her biased against human rights victims and advocates.

Hontiveros, however, says it is “absurd“to claim that Rosales would be biased against human rights victims.”Etta was a victim of the atrocities committed by the Marcos regime. To say that she is biased against the very same people she strongly identifies with flies in the face of logic," she says.

Rosales led the human rights victims who won a class suit against the late President Ferdinand Marcos in the Hawaii District Court in the United States.

The court found Marcos guilty of human rights violations and ordered him to pay the victims US $1.9 billion in damages.

“This alone attests to Etta’s firm commitment to the victims and their collective aspiration to exact justice and accountability from the brutal Marcos dictatorship," Hontiveros says.

She thinks the possible appointment of Rosales might have “irked” certain groups such as the Communist Party of the Philippines because Rosales is supposedly known for her “strong stance” against private armies like the New People’s Army.

“Those who reject an unbiased Rosales as the new CHR chair are those that are highly biased and are in the fence refusing to uphold the universality of human rights. Well, the time for their limited concept of human rights has passed," she says. –VVP, GMANews.TV

* http://www.gmanews.tv/story/195658/etta-rosales-perfect-as-chr-chief-says-hontiveros

National Headquarters
36-B Madasalin Street, Sikatuna Village, Diliman
1101 Quezon City, Philippines
Tel. +63 2 433-6933 / 433-6831
Fax +63 2 925-2936

Akbayan Partylist in Congress
S-514 House of Representatives,
Batasan Complex, 1126 Quezon City, Philippines
Tel. +63 2 931-5001 ext. 7292
Telefax +63 2 931-6575