MANILA, Philippines — Human rights organizations called for accountability for alleged violations, saying rights cannot be set aside because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period that they said has seen a deterioration of fundamental freedoms in the Philippines.
On International Human Rights Day on Thursday, rights group Karapatan said “an epidemic of state terrorism and repression” under Duterte is “alarmingly plunging the country deeper and deeper into a rapidly deteriorating human rights crisis and fascist rule.”
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Ahead of Human Rights Day, international watchdog CIVICUS Monitor downgraded the state of fundamental freedoms in the Philippines from “obstructed” to “repressed” due to the vilification of activists, attacks on human rights defenders and journalists, and the passage of the Anti-Terror Act of 2020.
In a statement, Karapayan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said the "war on drugs" as well as the restriction of democratic space through the detention and killings of activists "have only escalated in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic—and Duterte seems to be gearing up for a more brutal assault on people’s rights and dissent with the passage of his terror law."
Karapatan has documented 353 victims of extrajudicial killings —of which 188 were human rights defenders — linked to the government’s counterinsurgency program since July 2016.
The Commission of Human Rights said the president, through his pronouncements, has created a “dangerous fiction” that it is legitimate to commit atrocities against rights workers because they are “enemies of the State.”
At least 5,942 alleged drug personalities have been also killed under the internationally condemned war on drugs, according to government data. The figure, however, is significantly lower than the estimates by human rights watchdogs of as many as 27,000 killed.
Just last week, Duterte said he does not care about human rights, asserting incorrectly that "all addicts have guns."
"If there's even a hint of wrongdoing, any overt act, even if you don't see a gun, just go ahead and shoot him,” he said in Filipino, addressing enforcers of the law.
In a statement on Thursday, Akbayan Chair Emeritus Etta Rosales, a former CHR chairperson, said Duterte has spread a "political pandemic" where "the right to dissent has been reduced to plots to 'destabilize' the government, and the justice system, in tandem with a weaponized social media, works best when using the law to harass and persecute opposition leaders, activists and media people."
Human rights at core of COVID-19 recovery
In a separate statement, the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates stressed the need to exact accountability and defend human rights to achieve meaningful recovery.
"Accountability forms an intrinsic part of rights-based governance because it addresses injustice. Accountability ensures that violators will face the full extent of the law; it reduces the possibility of abuse, corruption and double standard practices," PAHRA said.
It added that accountability builds trust in systems and encourages people’s engagement, which strengthens democracy.
The group demanded accountability for the people who experienced hunger, unemployed Filipinos, students who dropped out of school due to difficulties in distance learning, and the victims of war on drugs and the government’s militarist COVID-19 response.
“Human rights must be at the core of recovery if all is to recover better. Otherwise, it will only be a recovery for the elite, the corporate giants and the powerful at the expense of the suffering majority,” PAHRA said.
Collective action
This year’s Human Rights Day marks the 72nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the Philippines was among the first to vote in favor.
While human rights advocates and progressive groups are commemorating this day on the street, the government, particularly the Department of Justice, is conducting a three-day summit on human rights. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines called the event an “extravagant deodorizer aimed at exonerating the state-sanctioned perpetrators for their crimes.”
Karapatan called on the public to assert the struggle for justice and accountability for all victims of human rights violations.
“There is never any lockdown for people’s rights and our continuous struggle to defend and advance them—and it is in our collective action that we win this battle against tyranny and dictatorship,” it said.