Transparency urged in CHR appointments

MANILA, Philippines — A group of rights advocates has urged president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to ensure a transparent and inclusive process in selecting qualified and independent human rights experts as commissioners for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

Marcos, who will be sworn in as the country’s new president on June 30, is expected to announce his appointments in the coming days.

“President-elect Marcos should appoint commissioners with proven track records of defending human rights. Given the grave human rights situation in the Philippines, these new commissioners should be independent and strongly committed to fearlessly and impartially upholding the commission’s mandate and duties,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

The Commission on Human Rights is empowered under the 1987 Constitution to investigate human rights violations and promote respect for human rights in the country.

“Marcos ran on a campaign marked by disinformation about his family’s role in human rights abuses during the dictatorship of his father Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and so the appointment of the commissioners will be an important first test for his administration’s commitment to human rights,” Robertson said.

The term of the five-member commission, the fifth group of commissioners since it was established in 1987, ended last month.

The Constitution prevents outgoing President Duterte from appointing people to executive positions within two months before the presidential election, which took place last May 9.

Commissioners are appointed to seven-year terms and cannot be reappointed.

Marcos should convene an independent search committee that will come up with a short list of candidates for commissioners, according to Human Rights Watch.

“This committee should identify individuals with strong human rights backgrounds and credentials. Participation from the Philippines’ human rights community and civil society should be encouraged so that they can provide reputable candidates who represent vulnerable sectors, such as people with disabilities, older people, children and LGBT people,” the group said.

“Convening such a search committee will help ensure transparency in the process,” it added.

Although previous administrations formed their own search committees for commission appointees, the process was not transparent, a former commission member told Human Rights Watch.

Transparency “is something that we, as an institution and civil society, have been pushing for, preferably a panel that can look at the Paris Principles to vet candidates,” according to the former commissioner.

The Paris Principles, established in 1993, set the criteria for maintaining the independence of national human rights institutions.

The widespread extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances during the martial law period from 1972 to 1981 gave impetus for the creation of the CHR following Marcos Sr.’s ouster through the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

Few cases have been fully accounted for, with many victims and their families still awaiting justice and compensation.

Marcos Jr. will also inherit the dire human rights situation under Duterte, whose brutal “war on drugs” has resulted in alleged extrajudicial killings of thousands of people since 2016.

Drug war killings have continued after the May 9 elections, although the number of cases has dropped considerably.