Marcos creates human rights ‘super body’
MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has created what Malacañang called a “super body” tasked to “further champion human rights protection” in the country.
In a press release on Sunday, May 12, the Presidential Communications Office said that the President ordered the creation of the Special Committee on Human Rights Coordination that is tasked to “enhance the mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines.”
“It is imperative to sustain and enhance the accomplishments under the UNJP, which is set to expire on July 31 2024, through institutionalization of a robust multi-stakeholder process for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines,” Marcos said, as quoted in Administrative Order 22 dated May 8 and made public on Sunday.
The committee is chaired by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and co-chaired by Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla with the heads of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Interior and Local Government as members.
Under AO 22, the duties and functions of the special committee include pursuing the following:
- Efforts to conduct investigation and accountability
- Data-gathering on alleged human rights violations by law enforcement agencies
- Expanding civic space and engagement with private sector
- Human rights-based approach towards drug control
- Implement human rights-based approach towards counter-terrorism
- Facilitate access to redress mechanism by human rights victims
- Monitor and ensure effective implementation of government agencies and programs aimed at upholding and protecting human rights of persons deprived of liberty, particularly in guaranteeing that no one is subjected to torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment
Marcos’ approach is markedly different from that of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, whose presidency spawned “a broader trend of so-called ‘red-tagging’ of human rights defenders, journalists, rural communities and legitimate organizations, perceived as threats or enemies of the State,” as cited by United Nations experts in an official communication to the Philippine government in December 2019.
The Supreme Court (SC) recently defined red-tagging as an act that threatens individuals.
During his presidency, Duterte took a bloody approach to his drug war, prompting an investigation by the International Criminal Court. Drug war operations under Duterte killed over 6,000 people according to police records, although human rights groups believe the death toll is much higher.
Amid the drug war killings, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2018 that Duterte “plunged the Philippines into its worst human rights crisis since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s.”
The 21-year rule of Marcos’ father, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, was marked by human rights abuses. – Rappler.com