Cebu City – Activists and human rights defenders in the Visayas are caught in a very dangerous situation between standing up for human rights and fighting for their lives amid attacks and red-tagging, said Amnesty International Philippines during the Cebu leg of its Amnesty International State of the World’s Human Rights 2023/24 Report rolling launch.
“With the growing neglect of economic and environmental rights in the Philippines, more and more people turn to staging demonstrations and protests to demand for accountability and redress from the government. At the forefront of protest lines are individual activists, human rights defenders, and organizations who risk all to ensure that human rights issues are at the front and center of the socio-political discourse. Putting themselves in the spotlight makes them targets for harassment, attacks, red-tagging, and the unjust implementation of the Anti-Terror Law,” said Butch Olano, Section Director of Amnesty International Philippines.
The Philippine entry to Amnesty International’s 2023/24 report highlights the same human rights issues in past administrations. The organization emphasized the lack of political will of the Marcos administration to address pressing concerns. Before the global launch of the report in April, Amnesty Philippines said that they reached out to the Office of the President for a written response to the country entry, but it was only recently that the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) acknowledged the request following the creation of a human rights “super body” through Administrative Order 22 signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
It is not the first time that President Marcos ignored the request of CSOs and NGOs for a clear human rights action plan.
Butch Olano, Section Director
“It is not the first time that President Marcos ignored the request of CSOs and NGOs for a clear human rights action plan. In fact, Amnesty International had already reached out to him as early as the 2022 elections. And what we have in our annual report is the same issues we outlined in our Human Rights Legislative Agenda submitted to him during the start of his term as President. So, AO 22 is really a response too little, too late,” explained Olano.
Amnesty International Philippines stressed that a legislation protecting human rights defenders is crucial for President Marcos to prioritize if he wants to show his commitment to upholding the state’s obligation to protect, promote, and fulfill human rights in the Philippines.
It’s a ‘damn if you do, damn if you don’t’ situation for economic and environmental rights defenders. If they don’t stand on behalf of the under-privileged and the marginalized sectors, violations of economic, social, and cultural rights persist
“It’s a ‘damn if you do, damn if you don’t’ situation for economic and environmental rights defenders. If they don’t stand on behalf of the under-privileged and the marginalized sectors, violations of economic, social, and cultural rights persist. If they do, they risk their safety and their families’ security when they get tagged as “terrorists” or “financing terrorists organizations”, falsely charged under the Anti-Terror Law, or worse disappeared or killed. Various disproportionate discriminatory legislation against HRDs is part of a broader strategy of disregarding economic and environmental rights. It dismantles the very core of protests when indignation is overpowered by fear for safety and security,” added Olano.
Amnesty International Philippines emphasizes that the right to protest is fundamental for people to demand for what is fair and just from the government, particularly when institutional mechanisms are not made accessible. On top of this inadequacy, governments use criminal proceedings against HRD leaders of protests, ignoring principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality under the guise of national security.
This government has also failed to acknowledge that the context and the root causes of social unrest comes from total neglect of some of the most fundamental human rights. As if fighting for the right to earn a decent living, right to land, or the right to food need to be won by blood or in the expense of risking one’s life
“This government also fails to acknowledge that the context and the root causes of social unrest comes from total neglect of some of the most fundamental human rights. As if fighting for the right to earn a decent living, right to land, or the right to food need to be won by blood or in the expense of risking one’s life. Currently, we face an unprecedented overlapping of human rights crises, which intersect and worsen each other. These crises lead to more poverty, and more inequality and discrimination nationwide. But this government either turns its back and ignores the people’s plea or turns its wrath towards activists. A government that is unsuitable and incompetent only exacerbates the cycle of violations and protests. Our question now is – is Marcos fit for purpose? He is too far, high in the clouds.” Concluded Olano.
Amnesty International Philippines also renewed its call for the Marcos administration to publicly instruct government officials, particularly the NTF-ELCAC, to end the harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders and activists, and to intensify its efforts to pass the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act and develop a comprehensive policy for the protection of human rights defenders at risk. Ensuring that human rights defenders are able to carry on with their work without fear of being harassed, threatened and harmed is essential to the promotion and protection of all human rights for all.