KARAPATAN today scored the Marcos administration’s “hypocrisy” as it prepares to adopt a National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) this month, in time for International Human Rights Day on December 10. The Marcos government has touted the NHRAP as an initiative that shows its “significant commitment to uphold human rights standards.”
On November 22, 2024, Malacañang signed Executive Order No. 77, establishing an inter-agency committee to supposedly raise awareness on International Humanitarian Law. In April 2023, Malacañang released Executive Order No. 23 creating an inter-agency body on freedom of association of workers.
“These executive orders and the NHRAP are desperate attempts by the Marcos regime to cover up its sordid human rights record. These are hypocritical actions while it continues to implement policies that infringe on Filipinos’ basic rights and freedoms and wantonly violate IHL,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay.
The Dahas project of the Third World Studies Center has recorded more than 800 drug-related killings. Karapatan said that “the current regime’s two-year record of human rights violations in its counter-insurgency campaign shows Marcos Jr.’s fascist legacy: 119 extrajudicial killings, 76 frustrated extrajudicial killings and 14 enforced disappearances, 43,582 victims of forced evacuation, 63,380 victims of indiscriminate firing and 46,921 victims of bombing.”
“Marcos Jr. continues the bloody legacy of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte in his continuing implementation of Oplan Double Barrel and other policies in his sham drug war. He also maintains the operations of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) through continuing implementation of Executive Order No. 70. His ‘whole of nation approach’ has resulted in numerous violations of international humanitarian law, including killings of civilians and militarization of communities,” Palabay said.
KARAPATAN said that the recent communication of UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan regarding killings, enforced disappearances, arrests and arbitrary detentions, and judicial harassment of journalists, human rights defenders and activists under the current administration bears out the real situation on the ground.
After her official visit in early 2024, Khan recently made public her communication on September 24, 2024 to the Marcos government, expressing concern on several cases of human rights violations.
“I also note with great concern the widespread ‘red-tagging’, criminalization and vilification to which several news media organisations, civil society organisations and their members are subjected to and the instances of intimidation, harassment, judicial prosecution, privation of liberty and violent attacks that often follow this targeting,” Khan said.
Khan also stated that the “rule of law and due process standards are abused or not respected in a significant number of instances, including through excessively prolonged pre-trial detention, undue delays in the administration of justice, alleged planting of evidence, or baseless allegations brought forward in an attempt to silence critics or hinder the legitimate work of activists or journalists, among others.”
“Marcos wants the real human rights situation on the ground to be glossed over through the issuance of the NHRAP,” Palabay said. “This is sheer hypocrisy. He must be made accountable for his crimes.”#
