BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
THE DEFENSE and respect for the fundamental human rights of citizens and the promotion of those rights and dignity, equality and prosperity is the duty and purpose of the government.
The credibility of an administration and its legitimacy to govern depend on its commitment and success in protecting and defending these rights. When it allows by design or neglect those rights to be violated and inequality and poverty to be inflicted on a sizable proportion of society, government fails. It falls into disgrace, can be criticized and has lost its mandate to govern.
Such a failed state is shunned on the international stage. The worst pain a nation can suffer is to be socially ostracized from the human family of nations for allowing violations of human rights.
That is what is happening to our beloved Philippines. In a population of about 110 million Filipinos, there are 20 million good, kind but impoverished Filipinos struggling to survive poverty, according to government statistics. This, in a relatively wealthy but unequal nation.
Respect for human rights and citizen’s well-being has diminished. This is where the death squads of the brutal “war on drugs” have killed an estimated 30,000 decent and innocent citizens by extrajudicial killings without a single mass demonstration against it.
The nation stayed silent and let it happen. Only a few brave bishops and priests took a stand to speak against the killings. Small protests were met with the jailing and execution of more innocent human rights and environmental advocates by state actors with impunity.
Global Witness documented the killing of 281 environmental defenders since 2012. These brave and courageous Filipinos have been allegedly murdered by rogue military commands and militia mercenaries in Mindanao, paid by mining and logging corporations. Are they beyond the command of the Philippine military generals?
The Philippines carries the disgraceful title as the third most dangerous nation for environmentalists and journalists. Media workers are on the frontline. One hundred ninety-nine have been killed since 1986.
Another painful truth is the fact that seven million Filipino children experience sexual abuse every year, according to Unicef. That is the tip of the iceberg of hidden child abuse. The nation is named as the hub of online child sexual abuse.
This truth was presented to an emotionally shocked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently. Law enforcement is unable to stop it. The justice system needs urgent reform.
The root cause of social unrest is social injustice. The rich elite are only 0.1 percent of the population but own about 46 percent of the national wealth. They are growing richer yet the poor are even poorer.
Many true Filipinos protest this inequality and claim family dynasties control the government and favor their wealthy friends and relatives in business and irresponsible large mining corporations that destroy the environment. Filipino advocates of environmental justice and human rights are branded subversives by the military and police and are arrested without evidence. (To be continued)/PN
