Atty. Arroyo: My question is simply on the operational or ground level because it strikes me that in some commands the emphasis is more on the CARHRIHI- which of course as the secretary and the head of MCI I also understand and appreciate, thats the document that forms our mandate. But at the same time noted when I addressed this particular command there seems to be some apprehension among the officers that the application of RA 9851 has political implications regarding belligerency status and that sort of thing. And lfeelthat if we're allto be on board with respect to Republic Act 9851 that somehow this apprehension has to be laid to rest How far are we along that respect? Because theres seems to be some degree of apprehension left among some of I the officers. Gen. Tutaan: status. But the greater thing about this is simply on a day to day or normal situation that occurs on the ground. I could relate to this because I was a ground commander before my designation as AFP Chief of the Human Rights Office. Lels say that the cell site tower is being blown up because cell tower owners did not pay the extortion money. But what is the extortion money? lt is the alleged revolutionary tax done under the context of armed conflict So that becomes an IHL problem. lf you have both CARHRIHL and RA 9851, the people are the ones empowered against the threats. Maybe it is the AFP itself that is the threat in some areas but in greater areas it is the non-state armed groups. lf empowered with both CARHRIHL and RA 9851 the community would benefit Our duty is to make sure that the AFP is compliant to both agreement and the law itself As far as applicability of RA 9851 vis-i-vis CARHRIHL its really different in some areas. The reason being the amount of knowledge that they have and the kind of ownership so to speaK they have on that matter. lf you go to Eastern Mindanao, they would rather have CARHRIHI- because its a way to explain because insurgency is heavier than in Visayas. Its easier to say there that we will abide with this agreemen! both the Covernment and the CPP-NPA. So if you are a town folk or a villager or the tribal leader in the area, you can immediately tell, for example the NPA or the AFP if they become threats, that you've signed something on this, rather than using RA 9851 in itself ln other areas like in Central Mindanao, where the framework of agreement is now very efiective, that there is no more conflict except RIDOS, and in Visayas, they can relate more on the RA 9851 because it is a law in itself that is undertaken. But as far as the second question on the matter of belligerency status, I must admit that thats the wrong perception that the AFP had, that the status of belligerency might be affected. But no, and why? Because IHL itself states that it doesn't affect whether you acquire a belligerent or non-belligerent status and RA 9851 also speaks of the same thing. So it doesn't have a direct effect on the belligerent Atty. Aroyo: Since you're part of a working group, and you're analyzing the issues such as complementarity. I was wondering because I had the fortune to have some limited dialogue with the DOl, on the implementation of 9851. I wanted to ask and hopefully this can be discussed in ihe parallel session, if operational difficulties of prosecution have come up in your discussion here in the Philippines. Atty. Mallari: We just commenced dealing with procedures, so now we were comparing with other countries, because other countries have already come out with their own cooperation provisions. Thals what we're studying right now. Antoine G.: We are also part of the lnternational Monitoring Team which looks at issues of rehabilitation and development and lnternaiional Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. l've been here for the last few years actually, and as Prof. Roque was mentioning, a lot had happened definitely. 0n the legislative front a lot of laws have been passed. But what is usually the bottleneck or where the devil is, is in the implementation. ln our programs, we really have to say that we have lots of extremely good cooperation proceedings of the Second National Summit on tnternational Humanitarian Law in the Philippines 11 December 20L2 E l