(We yield this space to the statement of the human rights alliance Karapatan due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
THE irony of this so-called Human Rights Summit is not lost on human rights advocates, victims of human rights violations and the general public. As this summit is being held, the Philippine National Police chief ordered his personnel to use rattan sticks to hit people for allegedly violating social distancing protocols, as if the more than 200,000 individuals arrested and detained, and some physically tortured, were not enough to prove the government’s archaic, misguided, and utterly disproportionate response to the pandemic.
As the summit is being held, extrajudicial killings continue to be committed with impunity in the drug war and counterinsurgency operations. No report has been issued by the Department of Justice on the status of its so-called review on alleged drug-related killings by State actors. Meantime, Karapatan counts at least 353 extrajudicial killings of peasants, trade unionists, indigenous peoples, human rights workers and lawyers, among many others victimized in the counterinsurgency campaign that remain unsolved.
As the summit is being held, the administration has intensified its red-tagging rampage against progressive groups, individuals advocates and institutions, with government and security officials.
As the summit is being held, trumped-up charges based on planted evidence and perjured testimonies continue to hound activists, critics, and communities. At least 3,614 have been illegally or arbitrarily arrested.
As this summit is being held, critics such as Sen. Leila de Lima remain behind bars while the State is ramping up spurious legal machinations to intimidate the media such as Maria Ressa and Rappler, to justify the closure of ABS-CBN, and to embolden other attacks on journalists and media workers.
As this summit is being held, the terror law hangs like a Damocles sword on the exercise of free speech, press freedom, the freedom of association, and the right to political dissent, as we descend to lowest of lows in the government’s human rights record.
We hope that this irony won’t be lost on those participating in the event, including the international community. The realities on the ground, including the inadequacy of domestic mechanisms of accountability, are plain to see.
