Human Rights Watch gives Marcos Jr. a failing mark in rights protection

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 29 June)—President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has done little to improve the state of human rights in the Philippines, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Wednesday.

_{President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Malacañang photo}

HRW said police and their agents continue their “drug war” killings, “though at a lower rate than during the Duterte administration.”

The group, citing a June 26 report by the UP Third World Studies Center, said that there had been 336 “drug-related” killings since Marcos became president, most during law enforcement anti-drug operations.

It further noted that out of the thousands of “drug war” killings since 2016, only three have resulted in the conviction of police officers.

The group added that authorities remain responsible for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests of activists and outspoken critics.

But HRW pointed out that both government security forces and the communist New People’s Army have been responsible for serious abuses during their decades-long armed conflict.

“The Marcos administration has increased the dangerous and at times fatal ‘red-tagging’ of activists deemed to be supporting the insurgents. Officials—including Marcos’s vice president, Sara Duterte, who is also the education secretary—have red-tagged journalists, social media users, and teachers. Marcos should stop the red-tagging and other harassment, and order the authorities to locate activists reported missing,” the statement said.

Sara Duterte recently issued a memo ordering school heads to identify teachers who are members of the progressive Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

HRW said media freedom in the Philippines “is undercut by violence against journalists,” citing that four journalists have been killed over the past year, bringing the number to 179 journalists killed since democratic government was restored in 1986.

Recently, VERA Files, received death threats through Facebook Messenger sent by a certain “Melbert Enriquez” accompanied by a photo of two men brandishing rifles. The threats came after VERA Files published a fact check that belied Senator Ronald dela Rosa’s claim that former President Duterte’s comments about killing police linked to the drug trade were only said out of frustration, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Freedom for Media Freedom for All Coalition.

Dela Rosa served as director general of the Philippine National Police during the early years of the Duterte presidency before becoming a senator in 2019.

“President Marcos needs to do more than issue statements about democracy and the rule of law to demonstrate a genuine commitment to human rights,” the statement quoted Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, as saying. “Without concrete action to break old patterns of abuses and secure accountability for past crimes, his words have little credibility.”

HRW urged Marcos to formally announce an end to the “drug war,” order investigations into officials implicated in illegal killings, and fulfill his promise to use nonviolent means to address illegal drugs.

The group also asked Marcos to order government agencies to cooperate with a possible investigation by the International Criminal Court into the “drug war” killings, which it said could amount to crimes against humanity, and to rejoin the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC.

The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019, but the ICC said it retains jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed before the withdrawal took effect. (MindaNews)

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