Foreign and Commonwealth Office written question – answered at on 8 July 2019.
Lord Hylton
Crossbench
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions, if any, they plan to have with the government of the Philippines about the circumstances of the deaths of Neptali Morada, Ryan Hubilla, Nelly Bagsala, Nonoy Palma and Dennis Sequeña, and ways in which to prevent further killings.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State
We have not had discussions with the Philippine authorities on these specific cases due to ongoing investigations. However, our Embassy in Manila continues to follow developments closely in each case.
The UK remains concerned about reports of human rights abuses in the Philippines, including the attacks on human rights and labour rights campaigners. We consistently call on the Government of the Philippines to ensure a safe environment for human rights defenders and encourage the Government of the Philippines to prioritise the passage of the Human Rights Defenders Bill.
Through our national statements at the UN Human Rights Council the UK has urged the Philippines to conduct thorough investigations into killings associated with the war on drugs and to ensure the safety of land rights defenders. We also work closely with our EU partners to press for investigations into instances of abuse.
The Minister for Asia and the Pacific raised our concerns with Philippines Ministers, including the then Minister for Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano, during his visit to Manila in August 2018. More recently, the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to the Philippines raised our concerns with Cabinet Secretaries in February. These messages were also passed to Philippines Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Enrique Manalo during the UK-Philippines High Level Talks that took place in Manila in November 2018.
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The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
