The outgoing Arroyo administration treated human rights violations in a cavalier fashion and gave scant attention to end such abuses for nine years.

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairwoman Leila M. de Lima delivered one of the strongest criticisms of the inglorious rights record of the current regime during the 14th Asia Pacific Policy  Forum on Human Rights held at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Ortigas Center on June 17.

“The exit of the current administration brings an end to nine years of tepid enforcement, rabid violation and dismal disregard for human rights protection in the country. And it will offer the potential for political, institutional and social rehabilitation and renewal, allowing the state to pivot away from seemingly endless denial, inexplicable inaction and suspicious complicity, toward a good faith and concrete implementation of its human rights obligations," De Lima said in her keynote address at the forum.

She noted that President-elect Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III has promised to put a closure to the bloody chapter of unresolved murders during the nine years of the Arroyo regime by solving those cases and identifying the perpetrators and the masterminds, arresting them and sending them to prison.

De Lima said she hopes that the new set of leaders would give priority to human rights "and that rhetoric must be supported by effective action," but warned that "this is the time for human rights advocates to redouble our efforts, build up our capacities and strengthen our alliances."

She appealed to the Australian Embassy, which co-hosted the forum, to help the CHR bolster its capabilities to protect and promote human rights.

"The state of human rights in the Philippines, over these last nine years, has frankly been dispiriting. While there have been a few bright spots in some areas, for the most part, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights have been undermined. A culture of impunity remains pervasive in the country, and this lack of accountability is one of the catalysts, of continuing and sometimes harrowing instances of human rights violations," De Lima said.

“On the right to life – the massacre in Maguindanao, where dozens of journalists, human rights advocates, lawyers and civilians were abducted in broad daylight and brought to a grisly end nearby, is only one of the more prominent instances of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. There have been many others, far too many," she said.