Statement of Loretta Ann P. Rosales
“The problems of today cannot be solved by the same consciousness
that created them.”
-Albert Einstein
When the Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines, NGO partners and
concerned citizens from Southeast Asia filed a petition before the CHR in September
2015 against 47 multinational “Carbon Majors” to investigate possible rights
violations resulting from activities impacting climate change, many raised their
eyebrows in wonder. The big business majors were quick to question the
Commission’s jurisdiction over them given the fact that the Commission has no
judicial authority to investigate and prosecute, especially at the magnitude of their
impact on climate change.
And true enough. The Rights Commission is a monitoring body, a watchdog
to make sure the government complies with rights obligations exacted by treaties to
which the Philippines is a state party.
But with the same spirit that gave Greenpeace and its partners the courage of
David to confront the 47 Goliath Giants, the Commission on Human Rights accepted
the challenge knowing its parameters as a human rights monitoring body.
I underscore this spirit of courage against formidable obstacles because this
is what this narrative is all about. Human rights is never offered on a silver platter.
It is an uphill struggle to fight for one’s rights and exact accountability from duty
bearers, whether state or non-state actors. Human Rights today has been a product
of continuing struggle across generations and oceans. It was Macliing Dulag that
led his people to stop the World Bank-funded Chico River Dam that would have
drowned their villages and fields that provided them nourishment and life.
It was these struggles synthesized under the continuing guidance of UN norms to
bring us where we are today - under an inclusive framework where duty bearers,
both state and non-state, should work together in the respect and protection of human
rights; and to ensure that remedial measures are provided when human rights are
violated.
The UN Guiding Principles (UNGP) on Business and Human Rights (BHR)
provide an analytical lens on what may constitute human rights protection in the
Philippines from climate harms, including the role of businesses in addressing these
harms and identification of any policy gaps that should be addressed by the
Philippine Government.
Briefly, the UNGP or the Ruggie Framework as is popularly known, rests on
three pillars: Pillar 1, State duty to protect, draws on the state’s existing obligation
to protect, respect and fulfill human rights in relation to business-related human
rights abuses ; Pillar 2, responsibility of business enterprises (BEs) to respect human
rights in the conduct of its business and to address adverse impacts of their
operations, and Pillar 3 , State and business should ensure access to effective