SOMETHING good happened in the House of Representatives on Tuesday but this was not given much public attention — the approval of House Bill No. 10576 or the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act, on its third and final reading.
Human rights defenders were killed, arrested, detained, red-tagged, and threatened for so long — especially for the past six years — and a law to criminalize these acts and to recognize the State’s duty to protect human rights defenders has been long overdue. It is high time that the Congress enacts this measure.
House Bill No. 10576 is a consolidated version of House Bills No. 15 filed by Albay’s Rep. Edcel Lagman, No. 161 filed by Quezon City’s Rep. Jose Christopher “Kit” Belmonte, and No. 240 filed by the Makabayan bloc composed of representatives from partylists Bayan Muna, ACT Teachers, Kabataan and Gabriela Women’s Party. A total of 200 legislators voted in favor approving the proposed measure. No legislator voted against or abstained on voting on the bill.
Now, the focus is in the Senate. The Committee on Human Rights must expedite the hearings and pass the counterpart Senate Bill No. 179 which is still pending at the committee level. Nonetheless, even without such law, human rights defenders should not be subjected to attacks and should be given justice.
Domestic remedies and accountability mechanisms have proven to be inadequate if not failing in bringing justice — precisely because they have not deterred and stopped the attacks on human rights defenders.
While we recognize that the measure may not necessarily stop these attacks, it is important to set domestic norms and legal framework in addressing the specific situations of human rights defenders. It is therefore urgent that the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act be enacted along with the proposed measures to penalize red-tagging.
We cannot let these attacks continue and claim more lives. All eyes are now on the Senate and eventually on President Duterte to enact this legislation before he ends his term in June 2022.
