MANILA – Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea rejected the claim of a United Nations expert that the Philippine government has become “authoritarian” under the Duterte administration.
At the Human Rights Festival in Milan on March 25, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz said the Duterte administration “has become very authoritarian.”
Corpuz cited the filing of the impeachment case against Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and the imprisonment of Sen. Leila de Lima, one of the administration’s staunchest critics.
These remarks “show how detached she (Corpuz) is with the realities happening in the Philippines,” Medialdea said in a statement released on Saturday.
“Democracy in the Philippines is vibrant and strong. All the branches of the government are functioning and the rule of law thrives,” Medialdea said.
He noted that the executive branch does not meddle with the affairs of the legislative and judicial branches, and that it “respects the separation of powers and the independence of coequal branches.”
Corpuz also appealed to Italian human rights groups to help “stop fascism” in the Philippines.
Earlier the government tagged Corpuz as a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee.
The government named her in the list of 600 CPP members that the Department of Justice wanted the court to declare as terrorists. (PNA)
