Bayan Muna urges Palace to respond to int'l watchdog's report on killings of activists
MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna party-list called on Malacañang to address the issue on killings of environmental activists and land defenders raised in the report of an international watchdog instead of "disregarding the report as anti-government propaganda."
The party-list said this in a Facebook post on Thursday, referring to Malacañang's response to a report by non-government organization Global Witness. The anti-corruption NGO pointed to the president's "aggressive rhetoric" as one factor that exacerbated the risks faced by land and environmental activists in the country.
"These independent findings support what have been reported all along by local human rights defenders about the gravity of the attacks perpetrated by state forces and paramilitary groups against land rights and environmental rights advocates," said Bayan Muna party-list solon and House Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Isagani Zarate.
"A deadly alliance of rotten bureaucracy, big business, the state forces and their minions is, then and now, dangerous to the lives of our poor people."
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, however, said the deaths could not be generalized without a proper investigation during a Palace briefing last September 24.
"You know, when somebody dies, we have to investigate whether or not that concerns whatever advocacy he has or that is a personal thing,” Panelo said.
The international watchdog fired back in a statement on its official website that same day, saying: “‘Repeating a lie’ is a phrase that could not be truer of the Duterte administration behaviour this week."
"It’s becoming worrying to the point of shocking, that after our three clear reports over the last two months proving how attacks against land and environmental defenders are rife in the Philippines, the government still shirks responsibility for these citizens, and refuses to look corporate greed in the face," Global Witness said in response to Panelo's words.
Their report, entitled "Defending the Philippines," argued that Duterte's broken campaign promises along with his aggressive rhetoric left activists at the mercy of business interests.
"In 2018, 30 land and environmental defenders were killed in the Philippines, making it the country with the highest number of such killings in the world," the report said.
"Duterte’s administration is leaving defenders at the mercy of corporate greed."
Global Witness senior campaigner Ben Leather said the organization was reaching out to the Philippines' investors to dissuade them from enabling violence with irresponsible investing.
Despite the president's campaign promises of forwarding the rights of the poor, activist think tank Focus on the Global South in a 2017 policy review "found out that the overall economic policy of the Duterte administration remains largely pro-market, pro-corporate, and neoliberal."
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