MANILA, Philippines — Calling for accountability for documented human rights violations in the Philippines is not old news, rights alliance Karapatan said Tuesday in reponse to Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri's statement that these should be left behind as the country has a new administration.
Zubiri on Monday called reports of rights abuses "lumang tugtugin", or an old and overplayed song, after the UN Human Rights Committee recommended that the Philippines "strengthen its cooperation with the international human rights mechanisms as well as the ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court" alongside other recommendations.
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"Mr. Senate President, ang kawalang-hustisya sa Pilipinas ay hindi lumang tugtugin (The lack of justice in the Philippines is not an old song)," Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
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"It is a palpable, miserable, and seemingly insurmountable reality in the Philippines," she also said, adding UN experts did not make up the rights issues that the panel recommended that the Philippines address.
In his remarks on the UN panel report, Zubiri stressed that there are no violations and that he has not seen anyone killed.
Palabay said the remarks were an "attempt to feign ignorance on the continuing human rights violations and the dire lack of justice and accountability in the Philippines [that reek] of insensitivity and utter disregard of the sordid plight of thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings and human rights violations and their kin."
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The Department of Justice has been reviewing "drug war" operations that have led to deaths and found irregularities related to the handling of evidence, in verifying whether drug suspects violently resisted arrest, and in coordination on busts and raids. Cases have been filed over at least four incidents, the department said in January.
The government has pointed to the review to show that domestic remedies are in place and are working, although rights groups like Karapatan say these represent a small part of the thousands who have died in "drug war" operations.
"Where are the thousands of successful prosecutions and final convictions for such violations? Where is the current government’s resolve and will to go after perpetrators in government, among the police, military, and top officials including former President Duterte? What policy shifts have deterred perpetrators of violations from continuing these acts?" Palabay said.
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Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, national police chief in the early years of the "drug war", said Tuesday that the UN rights panel's recommendations disrespected Philippine sovereignty.
"Our justice system is functioning. Mayroon tayong sariling gobyerno. Sana huwag na sila mangialam sa atin. Huwag na tayo nilang diktahan. Kasi naman, ano bang gusto nilang i-impose sa atin? Hindi naman tayo mga subjects nila," Dela Rosa told reporters Tuesday. "Respetuhin nila iyong ating kasarinlan."
(Our justice system is functioning. We have our own government. I wishe they would not meddle here. They should not dictate upon us. Why do they want to impose on us? We are not their subjects … They should respect our sovereignty.)
Asked if the Philippines should take the recommendations of the panel of human rights experts monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dela Rosa said, "we should demand our freedom from these people."