GENEVA – Contrary to criticisms that lawmakers have again gone on a junket during the current recess of Congress, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said he has his hands full discharging his role as member of the five-man Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CHRP) of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Senator Pimentel said the committee is busy deliberating on the cases of harassment, arbitrary expulsion, abduction, disappearances, killings and other violations of rights of parliamentarians in various parts of the world.

He said members of the CHRP buckled down to work on Saturday (Oct. 11) upon arrival in the Swiss city.

“We begin working at 9:30 a.m.  and break up at 6:00 p.m.  That will be our work schedule up to Thursday,” said Senator Pimentel, who represents Asia-Pacific nations in the committee.

During the Saturday session, he said the committee took up the investigation report on the cases of two Indonesian parliamentarians. He said one was extra-judicially killed and the other had his properties confiscated without corresponding payment years back.

Senator Pimentel and other members of the CHRP had interviewed the two parliamentarians, Indonesian government officials and witnesses during when they went to Jakarta on Sept. 16-19.

“The committee wanted to determine the identities of the killers of the first parliamentarian and why the case is still pending after so many years and ask officials why the second parliamentarian has not yet been paid for his properties confiscated way back,” he said.

Senator Pimentel said two cases involving the Philippine parliamentarians – Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano – are scheduled for deliberations by the committee today.  However, he said that the IPU rules require any member to inhibit from the cases involving parliamentarians from the country he represents.

Senator Pimentel said that from Geneva, he will proceed to London to participate in a forum on environmental problems brought about by mining organized by non-government organizations. # # #