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“The SIM card registration is another attempt of the government to institute false public security, when it has failed to uphold the people’s right to security and privacy by being the primary source and enabler of more threats like data breaches, surveillance and poor implementation of laws on data privacy,” said rights group Karapatan, as it deplored the passage of the law signed yesterday by Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

Rights group Karapatan said that the SIM card registration law may be a prelude to more breaches to the security and privacy of the people, when in fact, the government has continued to fail in implementing the Data Privacy Act, and enforce the law against scammers and hackers, among others.

A decade since its last review, the Philippine government will undergo scrutiny by the UN Human Rights Committee on October 11 and 12, 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland on its compliance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the treaty body’s recommendations in its 2012 review.

Based on reports, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla will be leading the Philippine government’s delegation in the review in the next two days (9pm to 12midnight PHT).

“The absence of justice and accountability for the human rights violations committed during the Duterte administration and the continuing grave attacks on human and people’s rights in the country, which are driven by the policies on the drug war and counterinsurgency programs, are fuelling the climate of impunity that is so stark during the first 100 days in office of the Marcos Jr. administration,” said rights group Karapatan, as it marked the occasion in a protest action in Manila on Saturday, October 8.

According to Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, "there has been no let-up in extrajudicial killings, red-tagging, threats and intimidation and other state-sponsored attacks against dissenters and communities, even in the midst of the worsening impacts of the economic crisis on the poor majority.”

Human rights group Karapatan renewed its call for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), as the task force commended its former spokesperson Lorraine Badoy-Partosa after she had been widely criticized by lawyers’ groups and individuals over her red-tagging and reported threats of Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar. The group also scored former President Rodrigo Duterte and the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) over statements and resolutions calling for the “full activation” of the NTF-ELCAC.

“Clearly, the Marcos Jr. administration, through the NTF-ELCAC and allies such as Duterte and the PDP-Laban, continue to coddle the likes of Badoy-Partosa because notorious red-taggers like her pursue their bankrupt and militarist counterinsurgency framework, which has resulted in numerous extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.

With the appointment of a new Chairperson and a commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights, Karapatan calls on the new appointees to uphold the Commission’s mandate and expectations for independence, probity, integrity, and transparency to conduct investigations on human rights violations against poor and disadvantaged sectors and provide prompt, responsive, accessible and excellent public service for the promotion and protection of human rights.

In particular, we expect members of the new commission en banc to address the recommendations by the previous commission during its public inquiry on the attacks and challenges against human rights defenders and its investigations in the drug war. Thousands of complaints of rights violations including extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention, judicial harassment, threats, and dangers of red-tagging experienced by civilians, human rights defenders and communities remain, and investigations regarding these by the national human rights institution need to be conducted with utmost resolve to hold the perpetrators in government accountable, to ensure that government policies from which the violations emanate be addressed with the full view of making sure that the root causes are looked into and that there’d be non-repetition of the said violations.

Human rights alliance Karapatan hailed a Manila court’s ruling on the petition by the Department of Justice to proscribe the CPP-NPA a terrorist organization, saying it is a victory against “State terrorism and intolerance to political dissent.”

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said “the 135-page ruling by Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar essentially affirmed the assertion of hundreds of activists who have been red-tagged and are still languishing in jail, after being arbitrarily arrested on trumped-up charges.”

In its unrelenting campaign to clamp down on dissent, the State has been vilifying political activism as terrorism and linking activists from progressive groups to the CPP-NPA, said Karapatan.

As expected, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly in New York yesterday, September 21, was nothing but another lame attempt to resurrect his family’s tarnished name in the eyes of the international community.

To stand before the world on the 50th anniversary of his father’s formal declaration of martial rule is not a simple case of selective memory on the part of the president of the Philippine government. It is an act that challenges truth and all known norms of decency. Worse, this act, committed in the name of the Filipino people, disrespects the thousands killed, disappeared, tortured and raped during the 22 years of the first Marcos regime. It is not only contemptuous of the many victims of human rights violations in the current and second Marcos regime. It also aims to deny that the late dictator’s son and namesake is well on his way to committing his own bloody record of injustices and plunder.

As various groups and communities in the Philippines and abroad mark the 50th year after the declaration of Marcos Sr.’s martial law with protests, Karapatan scored the dictator’s son Ferdinand Marcos Jr. over his recent speech at the UN General Assembly, calling it a “grand show of hypocrisy.”

“Marcos Jr. used the world stage at the UN General Assembly to talk about lofty universal ideals and principles that he and his family refuse to live by. Fifty years after his dictator-father’s martial law, he continues to justify the human rights violations committed during martial law, while keeping the billions of people’s money stolen by his family and their cronies.  It is a grand show of hypocrisy, another act meant to deodorize and atrocious crimes of plunder, massive human rights violations and exploitation of the Filipino people,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

Today, we commemorate the 50th year after the declaration of martial law by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Also known as one of the bloodiest period in Philippine history, his family and cohorts looted the nation's coffers and blatantly committed various violations of people's fundamental rights under his authoritarian regime. Thousands of Filipinos from different walks of life were harassed, abducted, imprisoned, tortured, killed, or forcibly disappeared under Marcos' martial rule.

Karapatan today decried the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations and its political patronage of Vice President Sara Duterte, after the Committee swiftly approved the proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President which includes confidential funds amounting to P500 million.

“The Committee on Appropriations should be gravely reminded that what they are allocating is people’s money, not theirs to cater to their political ambitions. Their non-scrutiny of these questionable confidential funds is a clear sign of political patronage and lack of due diligence. These millions should have been best given to students and teachers for books and other instructional materials, classrooms and educational facilities, and teachers’ salaries and benefits,” said Roneo Clamor, Deputy Secretary General of Karapatan.