00:00Madam Chair, may I know from the CHR if they are cognizant of the fact that KOJC is a religious organization?
00:12Yes, Your Honor.
00:15And considering, Madam Chair, that it is a religious sect,
00:22and I believe the CHR knows that several thousands of PNP members trooped to their compound
00:37and stayed there for several days, and I think up to today they're still there.
00:43Did you happen to investigate whether there are civil rights violated by the members of the PNP in encamping in their compound?
00:59Thank you, Your Honor.
01:01Yes, the commission is investigating the incidents concerning the KOJC, Your Honor.
01:09What did you find out initially?
01:12The field of our regional office is still conducting its investigation,
01:16and we expect the regional office to submit its recommendation as soon as, Your Honor.
01:25And yes, I agree with you that there are several rights that may be involved here,
01:31one of which is, as you mentioned, the religious freedom of the KOJC members,
01:38and there may be other civil liberties that may be affected, Your Honor.
01:42Yes, and earlier, Madam Chair, we noted that the CHR acceded to one of our interpolators' proposition
01:50that preventive is the better side of the CHR's function, correct?
01:55Yes, Your Honor.
01:56And before everything else happened, like what you said,
02:02that there might have been several acts already done in violation of their civil and political rights,
02:10did you not bother to at least post some of your members or anybody there even before the events unfolded
02:22so that we could have prevented most of it, if not all?
02:26We had, Your Honor.
02:27In fact, we assigned at least three investigators in the area, Your Honor, as early as September 1.
02:37Did they have the power to restrain or even advise the members of the PNP
02:42as to the action that they should do in relation to possible violations of their political and civil rights?
02:50They have no power to prevent, Your Honor, but they can advise the state actors.
02:58Did they advise the state actors?
03:00Yes, Your Honor. In fact...
03:01And what did the state actors do after being advised?
03:06As we all know, Your Honor, they proceeded.
03:10Considering, Madam Chair, that it is a religious denomination,
03:14I would surmise that the worship services were interrupted.
03:21Some activities connected with the religious belief might have been interrupted.
03:27These are serious violations of their political and civil rights.
03:33Maybe marriages are being celebrated in that compound.
03:40Baptism, probably.
03:42Anything you might think, activities that are related to their faith.
03:49And today, that is still existing.
03:54I think they are still prevented from doing that.
03:59What does the CHR intend to do or have done in the first place?
04:07Our regional office, Your Honor, is currently investigating the situation, monitoring the situation.
04:15And in fact, we already...
04:18Investigating and monitoring, Mr. Chair, is not good enough.
04:24Considering the unfolding of events in several days and continuing up to today,
04:32I think CHR should do something.
04:35Because we need to protect them.
04:38Protecting their human rights is the center of the function of the CHR.
04:43Am I correct?
04:44Yes, Your Honor.
04:45But before the Commission acts on the situation and to perform whatever is necessary,
04:53we have to conclude our investigation.
04:55So we have to determine based on our own...
05:00By investigation, sir, you mean you are able to identify the persons,
05:05the number of persons and their acts and the damages suffered
05:13or the number of acts that constituted violations of their civil and political rights.
05:20Yes, Your Honor.
05:22So those are among the details that we might need.
05:27And when can this committee receive a report so that probably even Congress can act on it
05:33and do something about it?
05:35Yes, Your Honor.
05:36We...
05:37After...
05:38As soon as the investigation is concluded, Your Honor, and the Commission en banc...
05:42Do you have a time frame, sir?
05:44What is the time frame?
05:49I'm sorry for being insistent.
05:51But this is violation of civil and political rights.
05:53You need to protect people.
05:55We understand, Your Honor.
05:56That's why we directed our regional office to expedite the investigation.
06:01In fact, the region already submitted a few recommendations on a few rights involved.
06:09And as we know, the incident is continuing as of the moment.
06:15And we cannot finish...
06:17The investigation is continuing, Your Honor.
06:20At the least...
06:21As the regional office concludes one issue, they are required to submit it to the Commission.
06:29Yes, while you are doing the investigation, at least you should have done something to prevent further violations of human rights.
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