Human rights alliance Karapatan disputed claims by Malacañang that the Philippines has “achieved stability and maintained peace and order without foregoing due process nor setting aside the basic human rights of any Filipino.” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin had issued Malacañang’s statement as a rejoinder to former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s assertion at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing yesterday that crime has become rampant in the country after his rule.
“With at least 105 extrajudicial killings and 14 cases of enforced disappearance already documented under its watch, the Marcos Jr. regime cannot claim adherence to due process or respect for human rights,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay. “Add to this the reported bombings, artillery strikes and food blockades in rural communities, and the widespread red-tagging, threats, harassment, intimidation and forced surrenders being perpetrated against activists, human rights defenders and other dissenters that have considerably contracted civic space, and you have a more encompassing idea of the scale of human rights violations in the country,” she pointed out.
“While anti-drug war killings under Marcos Jr.’s have not attained the same levels as the Duterte regime,” said Palabay, “current anti-drug operations are far from being bloodless.” Palabay cited figures from the Dahas Project of the Third World Studies Program stating that there have been some 700 killings related to the current war on drugs as of mid-2024.
“The fact is that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not rescinded any of the repressive laws, orders and policies that engendered gross violations of human rights under Duterte,” said Palabay. “The orders and memoranda that created Oplan Tokhang, Oplan Double Barrel and the like remain in place,” she said. “Executive Order No. 70 that created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), is still in force, with Marcos Jr. adamantly refusing to abolish the agency notorious for orchestrating the persecution of activists, despite numerous calls to do so, including from UN special rapporteurs.”
“With this backdrop,” she said, “it is a certainty that the Marcos Jr. regime will keep to its present trajectory of running roughshod on human rights and civil liberties just like his predecessor.” #
