Drilon to observe Cambodia case for IPU

By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
July 19, 2009

MANILA, Philippines -- Former Senate President Franklin Drilon said he was chosen by the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) as an observer in the defamation trial of a Cambodian opposition member of the parliament.

Drilon said the IPU, a worldwide organization of parliamentarians, designated designated him as its representative and observer in next week's trial of Cambodian opposition MP Mu Soncha for a defamation suit filed by strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Drilon, in a statement sent to media outfits on Sunday afternoon, said he was informed of his designation by Anders Johnson, IPU secretary general, and Ingeborg Schwarz, secretary of the IPU Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians.

The IPU is monitoring the celebrated trial of Mu Soncha, a member of the Cambodian National Assembly and a known advocate of women and children’s rights.

Mu Soncha, a one-time Nobel Prize nominee and a former minister of women affairs, was in the forefront of the campaign against sex and human trafficking in Cambodia and was vocal against the Hun Sen government’s alleged failure to crack down on offenders.

She will stand trial on Friday in Phnom Penh on a defamation countersuit filed by Hun Sen in retaliation to an earlier suit she filed against the prime minister, according to Drilon’s press statement.

The case against Hun Sen was earlier dismissed by the courts.

Mu Soncha claimed the courts were biased and that no lawyer in Cambodia was courageous enough to represent her for fear of reprisal from government.

“I intend to put the (Cambodian) justice system on trial,” she was quoted as saying recently.
Phay Siphan, a Cambodian government spokesman, dismissed Mu Soncha’s claims that the courts were biased.

But the accusations have gained traction among international human rights groups, as well as donor countries, which pledged almost $1 billion in foreign aid to Cambodian in 2008.
Reports said the Cambodian government launched at least nine criminal cases against politicians, journalists and activists recently.

Critics such as Human Rights Watch accuse the ruling Cambodia People’s Party of using the legal system to silence opposition voices.

Johnson and Ingeborg informed Drilon that he was chosen as IPU trial observer and representative in his capacity as former chairman of the IPU Human Rights for Parliementarians Committee and as a former justice secretary in the Philippines.

In July 2006, Drilon was elected chairman of the IPU committee, a prestigious international body that investigates violations of human rights of lawmakers.

He is the first Filipino legislator to be elected to the position since the IPU was established in 1889.

The IPU, the oldest multilateral political organization, brings together 146 affiliated parliaments and seven associated regional assemblies. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. It serves as a Permanent Observer at the United Nations.

The IPU Committee of Human Rights of Parliamentarians was established in 1976 and was created to ensure that the human rights of the world's parliamentary community - composed of more than 40,000 members - are respected.

In 2005, Drilon was elected assembly president of the 112th General Assembly which was held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila and was attended by over 1,500 parliamentarians from over 45 countries.

Prior to his election as president of the IPU assembly, Drilon was also a member of the IPU Executive Committee.

Drilon is the current chairman of the Liberal Party.