Alan Cayetano rekindles argument on definition of extrajudicial killing
MANILA, Philippines — Sens. Risa Hontiveros and Alan Peter Cayetano exchanged words Wednesday morning after the latter raised the issue of human rights in the Philippines and parrotted old narratives that the Duterte administration is supposedly victimized by the global rights community.
At the Commission on Appointments' committee meeting on appointments to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Cayetano — recently elected minority floor leader of the Commission on Appointments — accused detained former Sen.Leila de Lima of changing the definition of extrajudicial killings to minimize the human rights situation during the Aquino administration.
The exchange was a rehash of points Cayetano raised in the Senate in the early days of the Duterte administration.
FROM 2017: Cayetano uses restrictive EJK definition, experts say
"If you're a human rights advocate, these numbers should be at the top of your head, right? This is part of a pattern that our country is being destroyed, that the police don't do anything right, that under Duterte, they just kill everyone. So we have to set the record straight; there are wrongdoings on the part of the police, and they are facing prosecution now," he said in Filipino.
"It is a fact that the war against drugs produced casualties, but it is on both sides. The victims of drug lords and drug pushers are not being shown to our human rights advocates around the world...we did, in the last government, invite many human rights groups to the Philippines," he said in defense of the Duterte administration's "war on drugs."
RELATED: Government can't 'define dead bodies away,' says HRW
Administrative Order No. 35
Cayetano was referring to Administrative Order No. 35, issued during the presidency of Benigno Aquino III, which created a task force to investigate the killing of members or advocates of cause-oriented organizations like labor, environment or media activists. He claimed this tight definition was the only reason EJKs seemed to be lower under the Aquino administration.
Rights alliance Karapatan tallied 20 extrajudicial killings in December 2010, several months into the Aquino administration. In a submission to the UN Human Rights Council in 2012, Karapatan said that "disregard of the right to life continues, as extra-judicial killings of activists and other civilians by state security forces continue. From July 2010 to October 31, 2011, there [were] already 60 victims of EJK."
AO 35 was issued to address allegations that state and non-state actors have been "silencing, through violence and intimidation, legitimate dissent and opposition raised by members of the civil society, cause-oriented groups, political movements, people’s and non-government organizations, and by ordinary citizens."
The Commission on Human Rights has said that the international law definition of extrajudicial execution ‘encompasses any killing by government forces as well as killings by any other groups or individuals which the government fails to investigate, prosecute and punish when it is in a position to do so.'
"Once the Duterte administration started, [De Lima] brought back the earlier definition of EJKs," Cayetano claimed.
Cayetano left out that only one case against killer cops has resulted in a conviction over the six years of his former running mate's administration. He went on to claim that some quarters in the country are "weaponizing" the issue of human rights in order to make the government look bad — a common narrative among administration allies in past years.
Hontiveros urges DFA cooperation
"I did not realize we were here to review the human rights record of a former administration...It is unfair to accuse a person who is not only absent from this hearing but in jail for the past half-decade on charges that are being held unjustly even after the recantation of key witnesses," Hontiveros hit back in mixed Filipino and English.
"There's no need to question a former colleague's credentials...I would like to honor the track record of Sen. Leila, which I heard clearly was questioned."
Hontiveros urged the DFA officials to provide the ICC information in its probe "not out of compliance but out of courtesy." The Philippines still has obligations remaining despite its pulling out of the global court in 2019.
This comes as the latest in the row between Cayetano and Hontiveros after the latter went on the record saying that she would not recognize the former's election as CA minority leader as he is not a member of the Senate minority bloc.
To recall, sibling senators Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano opted not to vote for eventual Senate President Juan Miguel 'Migz' Zubiri, which would make them part of the minority under Senate rules. But the two opted not to join the Pimentel-led minority and did not participate in the voting for a minority leader. Instead, they created their own "independent" bloc in the Senate.
Once the CA elections came around, though, Cayetano changed his tone and said that he was an "independent minority" senator.
READ: Hontiveros not recognizing Cayetano as CA minority leader
Foreign Affairs hearing focuses on International Criminal Court, human rights
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed seasoned career diplomat Enrique Manalo to head the DFA, while Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez, the chief executive's cousin, was chosen to be Philippine Ambassador to the United States.
In just its first committee meeting, the CA confirmed the appointment of Romualdez as envoy to the US. The CA holds the authority to approve or reject appointees chosen by the president.
The bicameral body, which is composed of members of Congress, also confirmed the appointment of Ambassador Antonio Manuel Lagdameo as Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Lagdameo vowed to fairly represent the Philippines on the issue of human rights and other common values in the community of nations.
But he went on to claim that there are "misrepresentation and exaggeration of the so-called violations from the Philippines' side" in the realm of human rights.
"Definitely, we will exert all efforts to elucidate the parties concerned on the true facts regarding this matter here in the Philippines," he said.
Marcoleta says CHR should 'include all people'
Rep. Rodante Marcoleta (Sagip Party-list), the commission's assistant majority floor leader, agreed with this, saying it "would also be true with our problem in relation to the initiative of the International Criminal Court in connection to the crimes committed by the former president."
He went on to antagonize the CHR, too.
"It seems to me that the human rights [violations] can only be committed by state agents and state workers like policemen and military...If only the human rights commission in this country will redirect its orientation and include all people," he claimed.
Under former president Rodrigo Duterte's flagship campaign against illegal narcotics, official police figures acknowledge at least 6,252 deaths in anti-drug operations since July 2016. Police leadership earlier claimed the number was as high as 8,000 but eventually dialed this back by thousands without explanation. However, rights groups both here and abroad say the real number may be as high as 30,000.
Despite an uptick in killings and operations during the coronavirus pandemic, government data compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that crystal methamphetamines or shabu were still found to be behind the most arrest and treatment admissions in the country in 2020 amid claims of gains in the drug war towards the end of the Duterte administration.
Duterte won the presidency in 2016 on, among other things, promises of dealing with illegal drugs within six months. He failed to meet this self-imposed deadline and eventually asked the public for a six-month extension that he also failed to meet.
- Latest
- Trending
