(Due to its timeliness, we yield this space to the statement of the human rights alliance Karapatan. – Ed.)
BROADCAST commentator Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa was brutally and brazenly murder on Monday, Oct. 4, 2022. He was the second journalist to have been murdered under the Marcos Jr. administration. Only on Sept. 18, broadcaster Rey Blanco was knifed to death in Negros. Their deaths — the 197th and 196th case of media killings since the supposed restoration of Philippine democracy in 1986 – came slightly more than two weeks apart, an ominous sign of what the people may expect from this new government.
It is not only by killing that murderers resort to when they want to silence journalists and other perceived dissenters. Last month, a local chief executive and spouse (also a government official) reportedly filed a total of 941 cyberlibel charges against two broadcasters, using “lawfare” and power to intimidate critics into submission or silence. There are also dozens of new cyber-libel and trumped up cases filed against journalists and critics throughout the country since July 1, 2022.
Truth seekers and critics in the Philippines are at the receiving end of the pointed end of the State’s spear. In August, a poet and martial law survivor was arbitrarily arrested and detained, despite being sick and in need of medical care. Peasant, indigenous and labor leaders and members of organizations are being harassed to make them stop their activities. Human rights defenders are being charged with trumped up charges. Vicious red-tagging by forces identified with the State has intensified, not sparing judges and rights lawyers, while there is approval by silence from the top.
These latest attacks on people’s rights under the three month old Marcos Jr. administration are a continuation of what has been a State policy of killing, harassment, threat and intimidation during the Duterte administration.
We are encouraged by the warning issued by the Manila embassies of France, Canada and The Netherlands that the unabated media killings only create a chilling effect among truth tellers in the country. We are likewise heartened by the rejection of the International Criminal Court prosecutor of the Philippine government’s position that the country’s justice system adequately prosecutes rights violators in the drug war. We are sustained by the United Nations Assistant Secretary General’s report last week affirming that reprisals against human rights defenders in the Philippines continue. We acknowledge the recent report of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights on her serious concerns on the continuing human rights violations against civil society and killings in the drug war.
Diplomacy and due process compel member States of the UN Human Rights Council to listen to what the Philippine government has to say. But human rights advocates in the Philippines believe that the international community are informed on the real situation – the continuing human rights violations and the prevalent impunity in the country. We call on the Human Rights Council to keep watch on the Philippines and take decisive steps to substantively address the human rights situation and to heed the Filipinos’ call for justice and accountability.
