After the successful launch and in preparation for the conduct of the Top-Level Policy Dialogues on Human Rights this year, a Policy Discussion Session was held on 13 September 2012 to finalize the policy agenda for the top-level policy dialogues involving the heads of key government agencies and top officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The working group, represented by members of the Project Steering Committee and other stakeholders both at the national and local levels, set in motion a deeper and substantive discussion of the policy issues on human rights promotion and protection in the country gathered from the results of the regional dialogue sessions initiated by the project in all 17 administrative regions nationwide.

At the outset, Atty. Marlon Manuel, National Coordinator of the Alternative Law Groups (ALG) and lead project partner welcomed the group and explained the objectives of the project and the flow of the activity. Thereafter, the group members went on to tackle the tasks at hand which include the review and prioritization of top human rights issues, identifying policies and gaps as well as formulating policy proposals.

Following a spirited exchange of ideas, insights and experiences, a consensus was reached to narrow down the top priority issues to three: 1) command responsibility (for both the security forces and civilian authority); 2) relations between the Local Government Units (LGUs) and the security forces (AFP and PNP); and 3) “militarization”. Moving forward, the group agreed that the policy discussion session will be continued on October 8, 2012 to meet its objectives. For this purpose, sub-working groups from the AFP, PNP, CHRP and ALG were formed to work on the action points for the next policy discussion session.

The working group was composed of key representatives from partner organizations and critical stakeholders: Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP) Director Karen Dumpit; PNP Human Rights Affairs Office (HRAO) led by its Chief, Chief Superintendent Nestor Fajura; AFP Human Rights Office (HRO) Assistant Chief, Lt. Col. Enerito Lebeco; ALG national office and member-organizations (Pilipina Legal Resource Center, Kanlungan Center Foundation and Ateneo Human Rights Center) led by Atty. Manuel; Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF); Hanns Seidel Foundation/Germany (HSF) and the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) Chair Max de Mesa. For the next discussion session, the members of the sub-working groups will also be invited to participate.