As the House of Representatives Committee on Justice hears the proposed bills for the reimposition of capital punishment or the death penalty for drug-related offenses and other heinous crimes, human rights watchdog Karapatan asserted that any measure seeking to revive death penalty, if passed into law, “would only be a legislative fiat for this murderous regime’s rabid kill, kill, kill policy against the poor and human rights defenders.”

Instead of using the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act to “regulate” social media, human rights watchdog Karapatan strongly retorted that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should “instead regulate and police the social media platforms of their own ranks and other law enforcement agencies, which have been known for spreading malicious lies and violent, terroristic threats against the public without letup and with rampant impunity.”

Imposing a two-week “modified enhanced community quarantine”(MECQ) on Metro Manila and other provinces “would still yield the already failed results of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic” if the “anti-people leadership” of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) is not replaced, human rights alliance Karapatan asserted.

Mass arrests, illegal seizures, harassment of activists, and other human rights violations marked the conduct of government response to #SONAgKAISA protests all throughout the country as President Rodrigo Duterte delivered his fifth State of the Nation Address, (SONA) according to reports and documentation compiled by Karapatan and the Concerned Lawyers and Civil Liberties (CLCL), following the issuance of protest bans days ahead of the SONA.

Human rights watchdog Karapatan strongly warned that the proposals to reimpose death penalty for drug-related offenses "would only further institutionalize the already ongoing State-sanctioned carnage of the poor," as President Rodrigo Duterte pushed for the swift passage of a law reviving capital punishment by lethal injection during his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 27.