Press statement

Expectedly, the Philippine government’s inking of the joint human rights program with the United Nations is now being spun as “sincere efforts” on human rights.

The people's right to peaceably assemble and protest is a basic human right guaranteed by our Constitution: no law or policy can abridge or prohibit it — and this right remains in effect even amid the pandemic. In fact, it is President Rodrigo Duterte’s criminal negligence of people’s welfare and his fascist attacks that are forcing the people to not only exercise but assert the right to protest, including for his last State of the Nation Address.

This input was delivered by Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay in the webinar “No Justice, No Peace: 5 Years of State Terror Under Duterte” earlier today, July 21, 2021. You can watch the webinar on Facebook through this link.

At this point, President Rodrigo Duterte’s agenda in his bid to run for vice president in the upcoming national elections is undeniably clear: he wants immunity as a shameless ploy for impunity. President Duterte knows that cases for his bloody crimes against the Filipino people are waiting for him once his term ends. He knows he cannot escape any of them, including the cases against him before the International Criminal Court.

Karapatan notes the recent resolution of the Supreme Court on rules on the use of body-worn cameras in the execution of warrants as a product of relentless and persistent justice-seeking efforts of victims of human rights violations, lawyers, activists, and other civil libertarians, while we lament that such action came after numerous cases of killings, arbitrary arrests and detention and other rights violations in the government’s war on drugs and counterinsurgency campaigns.

“[We should] defend [our rights], or else we are bound to lose them.”

This was one of Jose Jaime “Nonoy” Espina’s messages that manifested his determination in fighting for people’s rights and civil liberties. In the midst of the calls to reject the government’s “terror law” last year, he was asked this question: “What does freedom mean to you?”

We do not have to destroy the credibility of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) because it has no credibility to begin with. It is better known for the lies and fabrications it has concocted and kept on recycling to vilify and demonize Karapatan and others advocating truth and are critical of the Duterte government.

Karapatan opposes President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal to arm force multipliers of the Philippine National Police (PNP), a call he stated during the launch of the PNP’s Global Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy support groups and force multipliers last week, as it will spell more human rights violations in context of the numerous reported cases of extrajudicial killings especially with police and military’s oft-use of the “nanlaban” narrative, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other grave violations.

The announcement of outgoing International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that she is formally requesting an investigation into the crimes against humanity committed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s sham and bloody war on drugs is a long-awaited step towards justice and accountability. Moreover, it is yet another damning indictment of the Duterte government’s murderous policies that have killed — and continue to kill — thousands of Filipinos with impunity.

Karapatan expresses our condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of Nolven and Kieth Absalon. Nolven was a 40-year old chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Masbate Electric Cooperative Employees Union, while his 21-year old cousin, Kieith was a former football player of the Far Eastern University.