CONFIDENTIAL
PHILIPPINES
Report by HM Embassy, Manila
General Observations
1.
For the past four years the Philippines has been under Martial Law, constitutionally declared in response to a deterioration of . public order. The Government claim that conditions still warrant this emergency system, including certain restrictions on civil rights. This is debatable - although a recent referendum showed, with all due allowance for manipulation of the vote, that a substantial majority of the population support the continuance of Martial Law.
Right No.
(i) 40,000 (0.1% of the population) were
detained 4 years ago. The majority have since been released; only those against whom charges have been made, or are being prepared, are still being detained (some 4,000). It is however possible to wait several years for trial as law processes are slow and bail charges high.
(ii)
Rating suggested by Post
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Torture is officially banned, but connived at in a small number of cases when it brings results.
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(iii)
Slavery is officially banned, but believed to still exist in a few
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dissident Muslim areas where central
(iv)
government authority is not very effective.
The media are self-policed by Media Councils. The Civil and Military Authorities also intervene to give "guidance" on handling particularly sensitive items. The
Government would probably tolerate a more critical press.
The media are inhibited more
by their own timidity than by direct controls. Outright anti-government publications are banned.
(v) All judges have been made to submit courtesy resignations to the President. But the judiciary can (and does) take a reasonably robust line when necessary.
/(vi)
CONFIDENTIAL
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