KEYNOTE MESSAGE Whatever the real reasons may have been, we are certain that the administration that banned us was the same administration that showered adulation on Prof, Harry L. Roque, Jr. a war criminal, the butcher Jovito Palparan, who today has gone into voluntary disappearance, and become Co-Chail a fugitive from the law. What we also know PCICC with I certainty is that the same administration that banned us is the same administration that was condemned on lnternational Humanitarian Law. l'm awed for a variety of reasons but primarily because, not too by UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, for its gross breaches of human rights law. Specifically, and l'm sure you will remember this, Prof Alston, who was stand before you today awed atthe iask of delivering this keynote address in the Second National Summit long ago, civil society to which I belong, was in fact excluded in the task of disseminating and ensuring compliance with state obligations under IHL We do not know exactly why the past CMA administration opted to expel members of ihe civil society from the National IHL Committee. Perhaps it was because of our constant reminders to our government to comply with its state obligaiions on IHL and Human Rights Law such as, but not limited to the ban on recruitment of children as combatanis, the ban on the proliferation of small firearms, and the need to prosecute all those who will commit serious violations of lHl- be it cominq from the ranks of AFP, MILF or the NPA Perhaps lt was simply a lack of resources. Perhaps it was also because they thought although, mistakenly, thai because the IHL is a treaty obligation, only the referred to by then Secretary of Justice Raul Conzales as a mere muchacho ofthe United Nations, confirmed that there were extralegal killings (even if he was not sure how many victims) and was our evidence that the Philippines was in breach of its obligations to protect and promote the right to life. I therefore stand a member of civil society triumphanl that under this new administration we have again before you as been recognized as a genuine paftner of government in the implementation of our own state obligations under IHL l'm awed as to how much we have accomplished in such a shorttime. Nottoo long ago, because we failed to rati! the Rome Statute of lCC, we proposed to the state, the ICRC and the PNRC should be involved in Supreme Court that we adopt a conflict rule, that the RTC that first exercised jurisdiction in the prosecution the workings of the National IHL Committee. of a war crime should do so to the exclusion of others. r\ 'I .l L ) proceedings of the Second National Summit on lnternational Humanitarian Law in the Philippines 11 December 2012 E