As the 2016 presidential elections draw near, people’s organizations and individuals ask: “Who will stand for justice?”

The groups ask this as they ready the charges against Philippine Pres. Aquino and U.S. Pres. Barack Obama to be filed before the International People’s Tribunal (IPT), in a press conference held at Coconut House in Quezon City Memorial Circle on June 16.

The complainants, which included Edita Burgos, mother of disappeared activist Jonas Burgos, Nikki Gamara, daughter of political prisoner Renante Gamara, and many others, called on possible presidential candidates to support their quest for justice in the IPT as well as during the campaign period.

“We don’t need promises,” said Karapatan Secretary-General Christina Palabay. “Will the candidates respect, support and uphold the IPT set to try multiple criminal charges agains t the Aquino government? If the verdict comes out, will they deliver on its resolution once they assume office.”

Karapatan and the IPT complainants called on the prospective candidates to heed global calls for justice like that of a possible IPT verdict.

The complainants said they had no choice but to seek support of the international community after the Aquino administration continued to stonewall efforts to achieve justice within the Philippine justice system.

The IPT is an international body convened by prominent legal experts and human rights advocates to hear and decide on cases of human rights abuses by the Aquino regime, with the active support of the US administration. As a citizen-convened tribunal, its decisions will be judicially non-binding, but will provide moral suasion for the international community to put pressure on the erring regimes.

The human rights group Karapatan led in preparing the documents for the cases against the Aquino and Obama administrations.

The charges are gross violations of civil and political rights, gross violations of economic, social and cultural rights, and gross violations of right to national self-determination.

Prominent human rights cases to be filed before IPT include the killing of Fr. Pops Tentorio, Willem Geertman, Leonard Co and many others; the militarization and forced evacuation of communities in Southern Mindanao; the killing of civilians and hors d’combat in Lacub, Abra; the imprisonment and persecution of political dissidents; the various cases of violent demolition of urban poor communities in Metro Manila; and even the massive corruption of public funds like the Disbursement Acceleration Program.

Karapatan said that in all of these cases, Philippine state security forces are culprit and the Aquino administration has been blocking efforts for justice.

“The IPT is an opinion tribunal which we could call a ‘court of the people.’ This is an exercise of direct action by the people, ” said lawyer Edre Olalia, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers secretary general and one of the clerks of court in the IPT.

The tribunal will be held on July 16 to 18 in Washington DC, USA. Senator Lee Rhiannon of the Australian Parlaiment will preside before the Tribunal.

International jurors will include Azaded Shahshahani of the National Lawyers Guild, UN Human Rights Council advisor Camilo Pérez-Bustillo, International Affairs Advisoty Committee to the UN Rev. Dr. Molelfe Tsele, and Economic Justice Executive Director Rev. Malcolm Damon.

Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark will spearhead the prosecution, while Olalia will facilitate the collecting and forwarding of the charges.

Olalia pointed out that the tribunal will be fair to the complainants as well as the accused.

“They will just listen, evaluate, and come up with a verdict on their own. Of course, the complainants will assert that there are violations. The defendant will assert that they are not liable. It is up to the tribunal to decide on that,” he elaborated.

Olalia said that as a clerk of court, he himself cannot make any judgment as to how the tribunal must proceed with prosecuting the cases against the defendants.

“I cannot preempt the verdict of the tribunal. I can facilitate, and I can give the necessary assistance to the complainants,” he added.

Olalia also said the indictment should already be ready to be submitted to the respondents.

“Ideally, this should be today,” he said, as one month must be alloted for the respondents to receive the complaints. “There are still some procedural matters that needs (to be addressed), but at the latest, I think 15 days is enough. Typically even in the normal legal system, 15 days is the normal.”

The Aquino administration, he said, will receive summons for the hearings, and it it up to them to participate or not in the IPT processes.

As for the Obama government, Olalia said that it will be informed of the IPT hearings, through the US embassy in Manila or the US State Department in Washington DC.