[hr-education] New regional center for HRE in southern Philippines (Mindanao)

MSU-IIT named regional center for HR education in Southern Philippines By
Violeta M. Gloria / Mindanews / 19 May 2006

ILIGAN CITY -- Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology
(MSU-IIT) is now the regional center for human rights education in
Southern Philippines.

This honor was accorded by the Commission on Human Rights in a memorandum
of agreement signed Thursday during the two-day 2nd Mindanao Extension
Forum: Advocacy for Sustainable Development and Human Rights Education at
MSU-IIT Mini Theater.

The school also immediately offered an office to house the center for
human rights education at the office of the vice-chancellor for research
and extension

MSU-IIT Chancellor, Marcelo Salazar, said it was “a challenge and an
opportunity” to advance human rights awareness and education through MSU”,
which was also the first campus in Mindanao to have wireless fidelity
(wifi) internet system.

“We can commit our hard working people here who are advocates of real
human rights and transparent governance,” Salazar said, adding, “we will
also advocate for sustainable development and endeavor that its impact
will be felt by Mindanaoans.”

Lawyer Macakuna Casar, officer in-charge of Commission on Human Rights
(CHR) in Region X (Northern Mindanao), said that “people must be informed
of their basic human rights and volunteers must be organized for human
rights education to compensate the lacking number of CHR personnel and
finances.”

“The expertise of professors of the institution will be tapped to help
educate Mindanaoans on a rights-based approach on development and
governance,” he said.

“It is not only enough that we advocate changing the negative image of
Mindanao but we must also advocate for a rights-based education,” said
Alicia M. Diel, chapter president of Mindanao Philippine Association of
Extension Program Implementors Inc. (PAEPI) in the region.

In the two-day forum where the agreement was forged, participants were
lectured on models of sustainable development; issues of Subanen community
in mount Malindang; and, the multi-awarded solid waste management in
Linamon, Lanao del Norte.

Doctorate professors also lectured on the philosophical foundation of
human rights, the bill of rights; and the human rights situation in the
Lanao provinces.

“We have documented child trafficking, summary killings, harassments,
torture and illegal arrests and detention as among the primary issues
here,” said Ahmad Macatimbol, chairperson of Lanao Alliance of Human
Rights Advocates (LAHRA).

Macatimbol also urged urgent resolution on the dislocation of communities
due to armed conflict “through human rights education to empower and
enable victims to defend and protect their inherent right to peace and
development”.

Jerefe Bakang, program officer of CHR Region X, encourage participants “to
pierce the myths of human rights education”. “It is a wrong notion to
think that human rights education as anti-government, pro-communist,
undermining to responsibility, and a form of cultural imperialism,” Bakang
said.

“Educating ourselves on human rights doesn’t make us pessimistic, radical,
individualistic, angry and sad,” she said, adding that “it will make us
assertive of our equitable place under this democratic system.”

Bakang said that “our ability to advance and defend our rights depends on
our sensitivity to our rights and the rights of others.”

 

 

 
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