KARAPATAN: Hidden truths on the human rights situation in PH in Marcos Jr.’s SONA
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS STATEMENT
24 July 2024
References: Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, 0917-3162831
Karapatan Public Information Desk, 0918-9790580
KARAPATAN: Hidden truths on the human rights situation in PH in Marcos Jr.’s SONA
It is far more important to detect the hidden messages behind Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) rather than be deluded into believing that it was all about banishing POGO from our shores and strong rhetoric on the Philippines’ claims on the West Philippine Sea.
Marcos Jr. said nothing about the human rights situation in the Philippines.
He did boast about upgrading the capacity of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in terms of more modern armaments. But the hidden truth is that the AFP’s newly acquired attack helicopters and heavy weapons have been used to indiscriminately bomb and launch artillery strikes against civilian communities, wreaking havoc on their livelihoods and disrupting their economic activities. These bombings and artillery attacks are being conducted in the course of a brutal counter-insurgency campaign that aims at crushing the New People’s Army (NPA) by the end of 2024.
The counter-insurgency drive is marked by the escalating extrajudicial killings of civilians made out to be combatants of the NPA, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and detention, and threats, harassment and intimidation, especially red-tagging.
Even in other arenas not mentioned by Marcos Jr., his so-called bloodless drug war has already chalked up a body count of 700, according to the Dahas Project of UP’s Third World Studies Center.
The Marcos Jr. regime’s specious approach to “winning hearts and minds” is to portray civilians as members of the NPA or “communist terrorist group front organizations” and force them to surrender and accept an amnesty program that does not in any way address the deep-seated social, political and economic roots of the armed conflict.
Anti-terrorist legislation and other laws are likewise increasingly being weaponized against dissenters, as seen by the large number of political prisoners and those convicted of trumped-up charges like Satur Ocampo, France Castro and 11 others. Up to 112 activists have been charged with terror law-related cases. To date, there are 755 political prisoners, 103 of whom were arrested under the Marcos Jr. regime.
This latest SONA’s silence on burning issues and the latter’s disturbing implications are much more telling about Marcos Jr.’s real priorities than his bombastic rhetoric.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.