(We yield this space to the joint statement of various human rights organizations marking Sept. 14 as the Global Day of Action on the Philippines. – Ed.)
DURING the 44th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2020, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet reported the widespread and systematic human rights violations in the Philippines. Domestic mechanisms have failed to ensure accountability, and there is persistent impunity for human rights violations. Authorities’ harmful rhetoric inciting hatred and violence against women, human rights defenders, political opposition, civil society, indigenous peoples, drug users and peddlers, and relief workers, which continued during the COVID-19 period, could amount to a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Weeks after the release of Bachelet’s comprehensive report, the human rights situation in the Philippines took a turn for the worse. The President signed the Anti-Terror Act that is seen as a measure that will aggravate the attacks and vilification of human rights defenders and civil society. The exercise of fundamental freedoms and rights has been compromised, with numerous challenges to press freedom and activists and protesters arrested and detained on flimsy charges. In August, only days apart, peasant leader Randall Echanis and health activist Zara Alvarez were summarily executed, following the killings of relief worker Jory Porquia, peasant leader Nora Apique and urban poor leader Carlito Badion during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Threats of violence, including death threats, against activists and human rights defenders have continued. We must put a stop to these unrelenting attacks. This worsening situation would not end as long as those who perpetrate them run free and unscathed. These perpetrators must be brought to justice before any court, tribunal or body that will act independently, with impartiality, and effectively, having allegiance to human rights and justice instead of powers that be. We need true accountability and genuine transparency in the inquiry into these human rights violations, removing the possibility that investigations would only shield and even absolve the persons liable for the crimes.
We cannot rely on the promise of a government that has shown great disdain and disrespect of human rights to exact accountability and operate with transparency. This government has shown nothing but contempt for individuals and experts, including those in the UN and the International Criminal Court, who independently and impartially seek investigation.
The Philippine Justice Secretary denied the existence of impunity in the Philippines, promising the creation of an inter-agency panel to review the 5,655 killings during the police’s anti-illegal drug operations. We have witnessed a long history of domestic inter-agency task forces and fact-finding commissions promising to act without fear or favor. But we repeatedly have been frustrated and even enraged by the fruitlessness and ineffectiveness of these so-called domestic accountability measures. Rather than help, these government bodies have even contributed to the infrastructure of impunity and miscarriage of justice against the victims.
We call on the UN Human Rights Council to exercise its mandate and urgently create an independent and impartial investigative mechanism on the rampant extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the Philippines. Its action may contribute significantly to deter further human rights violations.
