GPH-MC re-orients local CARHRIHL monitors in Bohol

Tagbilaran City, Feb. 13 – The Government of the Philippines-Monitoring Committee (GPH-MC) recently met with members of the Local Monitoring Board (LMB) in Bohol for a re-orientation session on the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

CARHRIHL is the peace agenda agreement signed in 1998 by both the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to uphold, protect and promote human rights within the context of armed conflict.

It is the first of four substantive agreements that form the substance of negotiations between the government and the NDFP.

CARHRIHL mandates the establishment of a Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC), composed of representatives from both government and NDFP, as an interim mechanism for adherence to the agreement. The GPH-MC is the government section of the JMC.

LMBs, on the other hand, were created by virtue of Executive Order No. 404. They are designed to implement CARHRIHL and monitor stakeholders’ compliance with the human rights and IHL agreement at the local level. They receive complaints of CARHRIHL violations from both parties against either party. Apart from advocacy, fact finding missions and other related activities, LMBs also raise issues and concerns that require policy intervention from the national government.

The Bohol LMB was established in 2005. It is composed of local government and civil society representatives who are tasked to educate stakeholders on CARHRIHL, monitor human rights violations, and co-conduct fact-finding missions with the Bohol Peace and Order Provincial Council.

Peace talks between the government and the NDFP have stalled for a year now owing to the communist group’s continued insistence on the release of  detainees it claims to be covered under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

Last year, the verification mechanism for the JASIG failed when the NDFP was not able to produce photographs and identification of their JASIG-covered personalities. The NDFP failed to decrypt their own codes on the diskettes that supposedly contained the JASIG list.