HUMAN RIGHTS in the Platforms of Presidential Candidates

Speedy administration of justice.

Economy

Review and rationalize all outstanding public debts and limit future government borrowings.

Encourage livelihood through the formation of cooperatives and other small enterprises and development programs to alleviate poverty in the grassroots level.

Education

Enhance investments in human resource development, especially by strengthening education in the sciences, mathematics, engineering and English

Food

Agricultural development to attain a high degree of self-sufficiency by encouraging productivity through the introduction of new technologies and support  infrastructure

Implement the Agrarian Reform Program

government activities and transaction and vigilance against graft and corruption, abuse of authority, and waste

Promote a safe, clean, healthy and wholesome environment; promote stewardship as a way of life; and promote the development of parks throughout the country.

Law and order through self-discipline, vigilance, and respect for the rule of law.

Provide adequate access to health care for all, especially the needy.

Create local jobs.

Secure decent homes to live in and land to work and build on.

Transparency and people’s participation in the screening of the Judiciary.

Incentives for private law firms who engage in pro-bono legal work.

Enact a Freedom of Information Act.

Debt relief or moratorium.

Increase budget for poverty alleviation.

Agricultural economy as the foundation of economic recovery.

Elevation of wages and compensation for government employees.

Strong and vibrant domestic economy not dependent on foreign efforts.

Protection of local industries against globalization, i.e. AFTA, GATT, etc.

Research and development for local investors.

Collective economic planning.

Education and Health

Schools and health centers or lying-in clinics in communities.

Regulate small-scale mining.

Moratorium on large-scale mining until a policy to make our own finished products is in place.

Regulation of logging.

Peace Process

Reconvene, continue and conclude peace process.

Dismantle all private armies.

Empowerment of local communities for rising standards of living and improvement of well-being.

Education

Greater access to education, human capital and social services.

Quality universal primary and secondary education that is accessible to all. Support for tertiary education through massive student loan program to all qualified students

Close the classroom deficit, reduce the teacher to pupil ratio in public schools and support the continuous improvements of all schools, enhance teacher quality, and raise learning outcomes by aligning our curriculum design with those of the rest of the world.

Work

Greater investment in enterprises and the creation of good paying jobs.

Food

Support for higher agricultural productivity and for creating more off-farm employment.

Programs and projects that will increase farm yields, enhance the shelf life of farm produce, improve marketing capabilities and provide the needed livelihood funding support to our farmers and fisherfolks.

Utilize the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) and Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Funds (ACEF)

Health

Universal participative health care system to afford quality health care for all.

Rationalize regional hospital system and make private ventures into health care attractive to investors.

Housing

Mass housing as a mandatory item in the BOI IPP list.

Urban renewal to provide for medium rise housing.

OFWs

More safeguards so that recruiters can provide more assurances of safety for our OFWs. Monitoring of conditions of OFWs.

Stronger transparency and accountability with the help the free media and public opinion.

Constitutional Convention by delegates freely chosen by the people

Improve administration of taxes for increased tax collection. Over the long term, reduce tax rates, including the Value Added Tax and income tax.

Reduce public sector debt through better fiscal management

Peace and security is a pre- condition to sustainable development. Expand the country’s economic infrastructure, and enhancing peace investors will be encouraged to invest in industries resulting in job creation.

Address the problems in Mindanao (land disputes, religious conflict specter of terrorism)

Disarm all non-governmental armed groups.

Mining

Cautiously utilize these resources.

Mining projects must respect the will of the local communities and provinces where they are situated.

Involve local communities in the decision making processes, especially in the extraction of our natural resources.

Address issues of local revenue shares, disposal and processing of pollutants and tailings.

Enactment of a National Disaster Law.

Massive reforestation program in response to climate change.

Implement the Solid Waste Act and encourage recycling of waste materials.

Build the necessary infrastructure for human rights advocacy

Protect fundamental rights from arbitrary government interference

Defend, respect, promote and preserve the human rights of all its citizens.

Promote democratization.

Free-market oriented society is always in aid to the promotion of human rights.

Negotiate political settlement with all forces engaged in armed conflict with the state to ensure a just and lasting peace.

Establish institutions for the full protection of the people’s civil, political, social, and economic rights, grant freedom to all political prisoners, and work for the abolition of death penalty.

Reorient the military and police organizations

Reorganize the judiciary and prosecution services

Guarantee full respect for the civil and political rights of the person especially those involving criminal investigation.

Reorganize the Independence of the Commission on Human Rights

Advocate for the establishment of a Regional Mechanism for Human Rights in the South East Asia region and participate actively in promoting human rights and democracy in other parts of the world.

Prioritize negotiations and ratification of international human rights instruments and encourage other states to do the same.

Promote consumer rights.

Create an environment where the rule of law is supreme and where every man can seek and get justice.

Genuine agrarian reform and true industrialization

Work

A skilled, flexible and committed workforce will lead to a prosperous and dynamic economy.

Introduce an emergency program of investment in infrastructure, public works and in social housing and other social services in order to get companies and people back to work, thus reducing unemployment over the next two years

Increase investment in education and work training.

Aim to guarantee everyone out of work for six months of either a high-quality training program or a work program with a strong element of training.

Establish an effective mechanism where the minimum wage or salaries for employees to cope with the minimum standards of a decent living.

Protection to working women and minors and those in hazardous employment.

Safe and healthful working conditions taking into account their maternal functions, facilities and opportunities that will enhance their welfare

Promote gender equality in employment.

Vocational training directed at increasing the capacity of the work force for high-tech jobs.

Trade unions and labor organizations shall be free from government and industry interference.

Encourage Small Scale Enterprises.

Culture

Non-material activities, artistic, cultural and spiritual, will also flourish.

Social Security

Welfare programs to compliment and protect private pension.

Health

Provide comprehensive health care to the needy and introduce self-help programs for the most needy.

Increase spending on public transport, housing, hospitals and schools, on energy efficiency and conservation projects and on education and training.

An annual real increase to match the cost of new technology and the growing number of children and elderly people who need health services most.

Invest more in renovating and constructing new health service buildings.

Housing

Provide good, decent, affordable and safe housing. Encourage home ownership, but we recognize that the housing market has been distorted and we believe that choice in housing means providing more accommodation in both public and private sectors.

Education

Increase investment in education by PhP200 million in the countryside within the first year. Priorities for investment are preschool education, education and training for 16-20 year olds, vocational training in technology and adult education.

Free education in public vocational schools and in State colleges and universities, for students with the requisite talents and aptitudes.

Introduce new environmental incentives.

Educate and encourage individuals and firms to use their choice in favor of the environment and to penalize those who do not.

Indemnification of victims of human rights abuses under the Martial Law regime.

Implementation of recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston.

Rights of the working people – provision of stimulus package and reasonable, legislated wage hike, and measures for job security.

Rights and welfare of IP and migrant dwellers in upland ecosystems.

Debt relief and prioritization of fund allocation for basic social services.

Food

Development of agricultural land and provision of livelihood towards raising the standard of living in rural areas.

Food production for food sufficiency.

Review policy on liberalization in agriculture.

Open market opportunities for local products through infrastructures.

Ecologically sound and scientific farming techniques.

Fisherfolk participation in management, protection and conservation of marine and coastal resources.

Land reform

Development and support of local industries, including government subsidies and tax relief.

Prioritize local manufacturing industry.

Work

Domestic job generation

Education

Expansion of free primary and secondary education, greater access to tertiary education

Health

Comprehensive health care especially for the poor.

Strict compliance of both parties to the conflict to the International Humanitarian Law and other agreements.

Pursue peace with sincerity and solve the armed conflict through genuine economic development.

Visiting Forces Agreement

Review of the Visiting Forces Agreement and negotiations of its terms.

Promotion of consumer rights

Recognize the principle of global cooperation in the pursuit of universal rights and responsibilities.

Provision of meaningful self and/or work employment for the economically poor as outlined in the various policies and programs.

Increasing government resources for the sustainable modernization of agriculture and fisheries and place priority on agricultural policies and programs that will eradicate poverty.

Education

Identification of best practices of top 100 secondary educational institutions of the country, provide support for their innovative practices, enter into partnerships with them as hubs of educational excellence.

In-depth studies, involving all stakeholders, as basis for the gradual transfer of educational services to the cultural non-profit sector of society especially in partnership with the community.

Creation of a policy environment for strengthening the role of private education in all levels of the school system.

Increase usage of educational vouchers to widen the choices of parents. Increase focus beyond just quantity of education services to quality of education services including more holistic educational approaches that develop multi-talented, creative, critical-thinking, socially-oriented students and citizens.

Health

Install a nationwide health insurance system, in cooperation with business and civil society, that allows the poor, with a minimal and easily payable premium fee, access to preventive medical approaches as well as primary, secondary, and tertiary medical treatment. Promotion of holistic integrative medicine.

Massive skills-oriented awareness campaign on sanitation, nutrition, and environmental health to lay the foundations of preventive approaches to health.

Mobilize development partnerships with indigenous well-drillers, water system engineers, socially responsible businesses, community organizers from civil society to ensure that every community or family has access to clean sources of water.

Housing

Partnering with civil society and business to provide a holistic approach to meeting the housing needs of economically poor families.

Encourage government, business, and peoples’ organization partnership to transform urban squalor into well-managed and vibrant housing communities for the urban poor.

Food

Promote the rights of consumers to healthy food and safe products through mandatory labeling laws, examination of policies on genetically modified foods and others.

Create macro-economic conditions conducive to the appropriate broad-based and inclusive growth and development of the Philippine economy.

Has clauses for cultural, ecological, political, social development.

Calls for improvement of social justice and order through peaceful talks with rebel groups, better representation of Muslim culture and concerns, provision of support to civil society.

Poverty eradication.

Democratized free enterprise system.

Countryside development and agriculture as the foundation for industrial and technological development.

Authentic and comprehensive agrarian reform towards food security.

Privatization, deregulation, and debt reduction to benefit the masses.

Filipino ownership/control of big business enterprises that are strategic and critical to the economy.

Equitable wealth distribution based on social justice.

Recognition and transfer of ancestral lands to appropriate parties.

Social programs for the urban poor, landless farmers, youth, artists, unemployed, indigenous communities, fishermen, teachers, OFWs, and indigenous communities.

Authentic and real autonomy of local government.

Promote genuine political reconciliation between different sectors of society including armed groups.

Reconciliation with those who rise in arms against the State.

Genuine equality,  participation and protection of women in all areas of life;  nationalism and involvement in government and people’s organizations, and ending patriarchal practices and beliefs including work and pay discrimination, abuse of spouses, sexual harassment and rape.

Defend civil rights and civilian supremacy, including the workers’ right to free expression and assembly and organizing unions by imposing heavy penalties on violators.

To foster a truly nationalist, independent and pro-human rights security and peace.

Armed Forces of the Philippines free from the dictation of foreign military agencies, including JUSMAG.

Territory of the Philippines should be free from foreign military intrusion and nuclear weapons, repeal the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) and the Military Assistance Pact.

Sincere negotiations with the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MNLF) based on social justice, national sovereignty and genuine reforms

Filipino-controlled industrialization of the economy to absorb urban poor.

Pro-Filipino industrialization by developing core Filipino-controlled industries (machinery, processing of local raw materials, including coconut, abaca and gold).

Protection against importation and smuggling, and prioritization of government budget for genuine industrialization.

Fair and just prices for Philippine exports, including coconut, banana, abaca and labor exports.

Develop fair trade ties with countries and people’s organizations.

Cap on debt payments, repudiating onerous debt, and demanding and exacting reparations and restitution for previous unfair trade and onerous debt.

Reverse “free market” policies imposed by the IMF, WB, WTO and ADB and replace them with pro-Filipino policies.

Work with progressive people’s organizations for a genuine agrarian reform program that truly liberates the peasants from poverty and feudalism.

Affordable fuel prices by cracking down on overpricing by the petroleum cartel, instituting price control and anti-trust regulation, and re-nationalizing Petron.

Legislative Priorities

Repeal the Mining Act, the Oil Deregulation Law, the EVAT Law, Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to prioritizing public funding for nationalist education, preventive, nutrition-based health care and R & D, and to opposing the removal of nationalist and protectionist provisions in the Philippine Constitution.

Work

Jobs that are stable, adequately-paying and based in the Philippines.

Fight inadequate pay, discriminatory employment requirements, inhumane and abusive work conditions, and racist culture and anti-immigrant scapegoating

Working with progressive migrant organizations for agreements, contracts and regulation that ensure adequate non-discriminatory pay, humane working conditions, adequate job security and organizing rights, for protecting undocumented migrants and political refugees against restrictions and persecution, and for ensuring adequate Philippine-based jobs.

Helping migrants return to their Filipino roots and national identity, and regain their national dignity.

Achieve adequate living standards for all Filipinos through adequate minimum wages and wage hikes, farmgate price support, regularization of work contracts and other social justice measures.

Health

R and D on herbal medicine.

Implement immediately and retroactively the salary increase provisions of R.A. 7305 or Magna Carta for Public Health Workers.

Food

Stop land grabbing and conversion to non-food uses of peasant lands, to ensure adequate farm gate prices and farm pay, and to freely distribute to peasant-tiller cooperatives and associations haciendas previously diverted from land reform.

Decent and humane standard of living among workers by supporting adequate increases in wages.

Protect workers’ job security by upholding regularization of work tenure, banning the IMF-dictated practice of “job flexibility”, contractualization and agency hiring, and punishing its perpetrators.

Adequate safety nets to workers by fighting for policies providing adequate unemployment insurance and higher severance pay to employees retrenched.

Safeguard national sovereignty and job security by scrapping the IMF-WB policy of privatization of government corporations and services.

Defend and restore the productivity, health, safety and well-being of farmers and farm workers by fighting

deforestation, large-scale mining and air pollution by punishing and exacting reparations from its major foreign and local beneficiaries and perpetrators.

Protectionist and nationalist provisions in the Philippine Constitution reserving to Filipino citizens the right to own land, including agricultural land.

Protect the livelihood and income of small fisherfolk from displacement by foreign and local oligarchic business projects, including the demolition by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) of fishing communities in Cavite along Manila Bay in support of  Sangley International Port.

Safeguard the productivity and income of fisherfolk and their fishing grounds against the pollution and siltation by industrial, mining and logging companies, sovereignty, and exclusive fishing rights for their economic benefit of Filipino fisherfolk and the rest of the Filipino people over Philippine fisheries and territorial waters.

Raise salaries of government employees.

Repeal provisions of EO 811, social security to victims of natural and man-made disasters.

Revoke all IMF-dictated government policies to lay off government employees, including E.O. 366.

Support transport worker health and safety.

Education

Uphold an adequate public education budget by canceling and rechanneling government foreign debt service and unfair trade payments of at least PHP 160 billion per year for the construction of classrooms and other facilities.

Increase salaries, enhance the occupational health and well-being of teachers by reducing the student-teacher ratio, and enacting work standards that disallow work overload.

Push for the enactment of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers.

Promote deeper and more thorough nationalist education and attitudes, especially on nationalist economics, and also through the primary use of the Filipino language as medium of instruction.

Accessible, affordable and nationalistic education.

Educational democracy and end the school profit-orientation dictated by the IMF and WB by doubling the public education budget, removing the rationale for tuition fees in state colleges and universities and enabling the poor to enroll.

Production of textbooks on nationalist topics and their distribution to students at subsidized rates.

Raise the DOST budget to over PHP 75 billion, or at least one per cent of the country’s GDP as recommended by UNESCO.

Housing

Genuine moratorium on demolition of informal settler communities and work for more adequate public housing that is more affordable and located near their workplaces.

Prosecuting and imprisoning especially the major deforesters, polluters and their political-military collaborators and protectors.

Demanding and exacting reparations from foreign countries and businesses for the massive and wanton deforestation and environmental plunder of the country and toxic despoliation of the former U.S. bases.

Promote organic farming, zero-waste management, R & D and public, pro-Filipino funding of wind, solar and other renewable energy.

Support pro-Filipino claim on territorial waters on the basis of the archipelagic doctrine against moves by China and other foreign powers to usurp Phillipine resources.

Fight global warming by pushing for a major shift to environmentally-friendly fuels or energy in transport.