Marcos told to tackle human rights in third state address

By Chloe Mari A. Hufana

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. Should tackle human rights and how he plans to curb impunity in his third State of the Nation Address before Congress, according to a human rights lawyer.

“We hope that he mentions something about his government’s policy direction on respect and protection of human rights,” Ephraim B. Cortez, president of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said in a Viber message at the weekend.

“We hope to hear him announce his government’s decision to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC),” he added.

The task force has been accused of branding dissenters and state critics “communists.”

During her visit to the Philippines earlier this year, United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan urged Mr. Marcos to abolish the task force to allow more inclusive peacebuilding platforms.

“We expect a concrete policy that will tend to curb human rights violations in the Philippines and ease the climate of impunity, not some motherhood statements praising its own human rights initiative like the human rights super body,” Mr. Cortez said.

He asked Mr. Marcos to review the government’s counter-insurgency policies and counter-terrorism measures to ensure respect for human rights and international humanitarian law.

He said peace talks should be pursued with the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front to end the armed conflict.

Human rights group Karapatan said the military’s counterinsurgency campaign has led to civilian deaths.

“The frenzied campaign by the military to accumulate ‘achievements’ in the counter-insurgency drive has led to hundreds of civilians being killed and falsely portrayed as NPA combatants slain in gunbattles with soldiers,” Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina E. Palabay said in a statement at the weekend.

She cited a recent Supreme Court ruling on red-tagging, which the tribunal said threatens one’s life, liberty and security.

The human rights situation in the Philippines has been under the UN radar since ex-President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Mr. Duterte’s centerpiece policy killed more than 12,000 Filipinos from 2016-2022, mostly urban poor.

The war on drugs is under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The University of the Philippines-Diliman’s Project Dahas said it had counted more than 700 drug-related deaths under Mr. Marcos’s term.

The President has called his anti-illegal drug�� campaign “bloodless.”

Mr. Marcos has also vowed to block the ICC’s investigation, which he said violates Philippine sovereignty.