Filipino elected vice president of UN rights council body

A Filipino has been unanimously elected vice president of the United Nations Human Rights Council's advisory committee.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said the official, Purificacion Valera-Quisumbing, presidential envoy for human rights and humanitarian law, was elected unanimously on August 6.

“It is an honor for me to accept this important position. I feel it is fitting for the Philippines to be acknowledged as an advocate for human rights in the global arena. Tita Cory was a symbol of our national quest for justice and freedom, and we must remain true to her spirit and reverence for human rights," Quisumbing said in an article on the DFA website (www.dfa.gov.ph).

The HRC advisory committee is the expert think-tank body of the UN Human Rights Council, of which the Philippines is a founding member.

Some 17 independent human rights experts comprise the advisory committee, which conducts studies and accomplishes tasks given to it by member states.

Ambassador Erlinda Basilio, the Philippines permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, served as vice president of the Human Rights Council representing the Asian Group of states from June 2008 to June 2009.

One of the most significant tasks given to the advisory committee is the elaboration of a draft UN Declaration on Human Rights Education.

The DFA said the Philippines plays a leading role in this task, with Quisumbing’s inclusion as a member of the drafting group which is preparing the initial text for consideration of the council.

Also, the Philippines is a member of the cross-regional Platform for Human Rights Education and Training composed of delegations from Costa Rica, Italy, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland.

The Platform supports the efforts of the advisory committee in preparing a draft UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training.

Saguisag: It's like 1986 again

MANILA - Through her death, former President Corazon Aquino has reunited the Filipino people once again, the late president's former spokesperson said Saturday.

"I think today, the Fillipino nation is again united the way it was in 1986. Ninety-nine percent are very admiring, sympathetic and grateful for what she and Ninoy have done for us," human rights lawyer Rene Saguisag, Mrs. Aquino's former presidential spokesman and legal adviser, told radio dzMM in an interview.

Saguisag said he had mixed feelings of pain and relief when he learned about Mrs. Aquino's death.

“Of course it’s painful, but at the same time, relieved that she is now beyond all pain,” he said.

He said the last time he saw the former president was in early 2008 when he was recuperating from the injuries from a car accident that killed his wife.

"Mahigit isang oras na consoling me, comforting me. That was early 2008," Saguisag said.

He remembers Mrs. Aquino as how she is perceived by all Filipinos--a true symbol of democracy. He said Mrs. Aquino did not only restore democracy in the country, she practiced it during her administration from 1986 until 1992.

Saguisag was one of the many opposition figures who convinced Mrs. Aquino to run for president against Marcos. He served as Mrs. Aquino's campaign spokesman and was eventually appointed presidential spokesman and legal adviser.

He said it was also Mrs. Aquino who convinced him, through his late wife, to run for senator in 1987.

"Ayaw ko rin namang pasukan iyon, pinatawag ang asawa ko. They had a very tearful session in the guest house," Saguisag said.

Saguisag said that from 1987 to 1992, Mrs. Aquino practiced what she preached.

16 dead in Pakistan hotel blast, Taliban blamed

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - – Pakistani police have pulled bodies from the charred rubble of a luxury hotel in northwest Peshawar after a suicide car bomb killed 16 people in the city troubled by Taliban violence.

A top provincial official said the massive blast at the Pearl Continental Hotel late Tuesday was likely the latest in a string of revenge attacks by Islamist militants over a six-week offensive against them in the northwest.

Police hunting for the dead moved from room to room in the five-star hotel on Wednesday, large parts of which were reduced to rubble when at least two attackers shot security guards and then slammed an explosives-laden car into the building.

Five more bodies were pulled from the dust and rubble early Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 16, Peshawar police chief Sefwat Ghayur said, with more victims feared trapped under the debris.

"The blast is a reaction to the army offensive in Swat and Malakand. The possibility of this type of terrorist attack cannot be ruled out in future," North West Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.

Police official Abdul Ghafoor Afridi told AFP that 57 people were injured, including some foreigners who have been taken from Peshawar, the provincial capital, to Islamabad for treatment.

"The number of casualties could rise as we fear that some people are still trapped under the debris," Afridi said.

"One portion of the hotel was totally destroyed. Three people including a manager of the hotel are missing and we fear they are under the debris."

An AFP reporter at the scene saw rescue workers ferrying out the body of a badly-disfigured hotel worker as his colleagues looked on in tears.

The United Nations said the dead included two of their employees -- Serbian national Aleksandar Vorkapic, who worked for the refugee agency UNHCR, and Perseveranda So of the Philippines who worked for children's agency UNICEF.

Dozens of aid workers were staying at the opulent hotel before heading out to refugee camps in North West Frontier Province, where Pakistan launched military action in three districts on April 26 to try to crush Taliban rebels.

The air and ground assault in Swat, Lower Dir and Buner has sent up to tw o million people fleeing their homes.

Tuesday's bombing was the seventh deadly blast in Peshawar in a month. More than 155 people have been killed in similar attacks across Pakistan since the anti-Taliban military offensive began.

Early reports suggest at least two men dressed as security guards shot their way through a security barrier and into the hotel compound, where they managed to detonate about 500 kilogrammes of explosives packed in a pick-up truck.

"It was such a huge and powerful blast that the engine flew up to the fourth floor of the hotel," police official Shafiullah Khan told AFP.

In late May, 24 people were killed in a similar gun and suicide car bomb attack on a police building in eastern Lahore -- an attack claimed by Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), which warned of more "massive attacks."

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Tuesday's hotel blast, and Hussain said a committee had been set up to investigate.

"Police experts are collecting evidence from the spot and debris of the hotel. They have also recorded statements from the hotel employees and those present at the scene," he told AFP.

"We have already alerted all the security and law enforcement agencies and we have declared a high alert in Peshawar and other cities."

The current campaign centred on Swat was launched when Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad, flouting a deal to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace.

The offensive has the backing of the United States and enjoys broad popular support among Pakistanis exasperated by worsening Taliban-linked attacks, which have killed more than 1,960 people since July 2007.

Jobless rate climbs to 7.7% in January

MANILA, Philippines - The National Statistic Office (NSO) reported yesterday that there are now 2.855 million jobless Filipinos in January as the local unemployment rate increased to 7.7 percent owing to the global economic crisis.

Results of the latest NSO survey showed that the number of unemployed Filipinos rose from an estimated 2.675 million in January last year to 2.8 million this year.

The NSO did not explain the rise but a series of high profile factory closures may have contributed to the increase.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), however, said the increase of 180,000 unemployed workers is still considered a “pleasant” development for the country.

“We are really expecting an increase in unemployment because of the global economic crisis, yet the survey indicated that the unemployment level did not worsen dramatically,” Labor assistant secretary Reydeluz Conferido said.

“Overall, the effect of the crisis is positive compared to more developed countries like the United States and China which suffered an all- time high increase in unemployment,” Conferido pointed out.

Conferido said the number of employed workers went up by 1.7 percent from 33.69 million last year to 34.69 million this year or an additional 565,000 employed persons in the labor force.

He added that the number of underemployed or those employed persons who have expressed their desire for extra jobs dropped by 130,000 from last year’s 6.23 million.

The number of “employable” Filipinos but are not in the labor force rose to half a million, but Conferido said, the growth is considered a positive development.

“These people15 years old and above are not in the labor force possibly because they are in schools or undergoing training,” Conferido said while noting that based on the NSO survey the education sector posted employment growth in January.

Conferido further noted that the number of people in full time employment went down by 174,000, but part-time employment increased from 11 million a year ago to 12 million.

“The increase in part-time employment indicates that Filipinos are opting to work even temporarily to tide them over from the economic crisis and this is very acceptable development,” he pointed out.

The NSO survey showed that young people or those belonging to 15 to 24-years-old dominate the unemployed and nearly two out of three were men.

Majority of the unemployment were high school graduates and undergraduates.

Conferido said that the Metropolitan Manila, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon and Central Visayas, where most of the country export firms are located, have registered the highest unemployment rate.

Conferido said results of the survey was consistent with the data gathered by DOLE, which indicated that about 80,000 people have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis.

About 51.2 percent of those employed worked in the services sector while agricultural workers made up 34.6 percent of the total with only 14.2 percent in the industrial sector.

Unskilled workers registered the largest group at 31.9 percent of the employed in January 2009. Farmers, forestry workers and fishermen were the second largest group, accounting for 17.3 percent of the total.