Research Paper on:
Philippines and Human Rights

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Unfortunately, however, despite constitutional guarantees, human rights have never been inalienable in the Philippines. Violations have been frequent and commonplace throughout its long and stormy history, continue to  today, despite numerous attempts at reform. In order to gain a greater understanding of the present situation, it is beneficial to examine the historical past, in order to put  the present into perspective. When it was officially discovered by explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, the Philippines already had its own independent form of government, known as the "barangay"  system, which was a type of extended family democracy presided over by older members (Orocio PG). The Spanish occupation of the Philippines in 1565 did little to change this  approach to government, which remained largely intact until the Spanish were overthrown as a result of 1898s Spanish-American War, and the Philippines became an American colony (Orocio PG). While  America attempted to establish a democratic form of government, old traditions die hard in the Philippines. Loyalties remained with a tightly-knit community of family and friends instead of (Bruun  78). Loosely translated, this means that, "Because the community in Asian societies has prior claim over the individual, the larger good is more important than individual rights" (Bruun 78).  As a result, human rights violations occurred, but citizens often turned a blind eye or a deaf ear, if it did not involve their inner circle directly. The Philippines  gained their independence from the United States on July 4, 1946, and attempted to establish their own type of democracy, with two dominant political parties, the liberals and the nationalists,  representing its citizens (Sardesai 209). Human rights issues seemed to be taken seriously, and there seemed little to fear when the popular Ferdinand Marcos was elected as the sixth