ILOILO – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Western Visayas has called on the public to celebrate and defend human rights every day, and not only on the commemoration of the International Human Rights Day.
“Dapat ang human rights indi lang ginasaulog kada December 4 to 10. Dapat everyday i-pangabuhi gid naton ang human rights,” Director Jonnie Dabuco told Panay News.
The International National Human Rights Consciousness Week is celebrated every Dec. 4 to 10, on the 72nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by virtue of Republic Act No. 9201 signed on April 1, 2003, by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
This year’s theme is “Karapatan at Pagbangon sa Lahat ng Panahon: Recover Better-Stand Up for Human Rights”.
Dabuco said they are calling for greater State accountability for all human rights violations in the region, such as cases of violence against women and their children, special protection of children, and development aggression – including demolition or economic and social cultural violation.
She cited CHR’s data from 2017 until 2020, which showed extrajudicial killings (EJK) as the biggest attack to human rights in the region.
In most of these alleged EJK cases, the suspects were unidentified, thus the cases remained unsolved.
Some of the victims, said Dabuco, were members of cause-oriented groups like Jory Porquia in Iloilo City and Zara Alvarez in Bacolod City.
Porquia, Bayan Muna coordinator and long-time activist, was shot to death on April 30 this year in his house/coffee shop in Arevalo, Iloilo City by two unidentified men.
Alvarez, a Negros-based activist and former political prisoner, meanwhile, was gunned on Aug. 17 in Barangay Mandalagan, Bacolod City.
“Ikaduha nga mga biktima sang gina-reklamo nga EJK amo ang mga may involvement sa illegal drugs,” Dabuco said.
In the face of these growing concerns, Dabuco urged people to continue fighting against abuses and to assert people’s rights against various forms of attack.
“I do not want to use the word alarming but there are challenges like the culture of impunity that needs strong action not only from the commission but also from the government and community itself,” she said.
Dabuco added that CHR-6 is conducting lectures and education campaign to duty bearers, specifically the police force, to ensure that they would uphold human rights.
In the Philippines, opposition groups said President Rodrigo Duterte’s human rights record is dismal, pointing out alleged extrajudicial killings, arrest of political prisoners, and attacks against dissenters.
Duterte previously slammed human rights workers and the CHR for supposedly contradicting and hindering his state policies, even calling the United Nations Human Rights Council members “fools” for allowing an international probe in the country./PN
