THE Philippine government through Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has called on member-states of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to take with a grain of salt accusations of human-rights violations committed against activists, lawyers and mediamen in the country.
In his statement during the adoption of the recommendation of the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Philippines conducted by the UNHRC in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday, Remulla maintained that the Philippines has “no state policy to attack, harass or intimidate” human-rights advocates, lawyers, the media and other practitioners of the legal profession.”
Remulla stressed that “claims of a shrinking civic and media space are unfounded” and such allegations could be traced to the ongoing campaign of the government to end the longest-running armed communist insurgency in the world.
He said communist groups have been using human rights to shield their members against legitimate government operations and prosecution.
“They use human rights as a tool to advance their violent agenda, claiming red-tagging and reprisal when the State exercises its duty to protect the human rights to life, liberty, security of persons and property, and to preserve national security and safeguard the democratic order,” Remulla pointed out.
“In the interest of fairness and objectivity, we call on our colleagues partners—in the UN to exercise due diligence in the consideration of allegations received from various sources,” he added.
Remulla assured that the country under the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has “a vibrant democracy” where the people’s right to free expression and freedom of the press are protected.
He said extrajudicial killing is also not a state policy.
“Classifying a death that occurred during an anti-illegal drug operation as extra-judicial killing by default runs counter to the tenets of due process and the rule of law,” the DOJ chief, adding that the government “will never tolerate the abuse of power and use of force beyond the bounds of law.”
Remulla also told delegates that the Philippines has accepted 200 recommendations made by member-states of the UNHRC to further improve and protect the country’s human-rights situation.
A total of 289 recommendations were made during the UPR of the Philippines’s human-rights situation, and Remulla said the responses for the remaining 89 will be submitted to the UNHRC “in due course.”
The current review on the Philippines human-rights records was the fourth such review since 2017.
With the Marcos administration only in office for about five months most of the fourth UPR will thus delve into the conduct of the then Duterte administration.
“The protection and promotion of human-rights is a solemn Constitutional commitment and constant endeavor that the Government of the Philippines shall never waver. In this spirit, and as preliminary action, we are proud to announce the acceptance of 200 recommendations—more than two thirds of all the recommendations during our UPR,” Remulla said.
Among the recommendations accepted by the Philippine government according to Remulla are UN Joint Program, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, a National Human Rights Action Plan, combating discrimination and gender-based violence, maintaining a moratorium on the death penalty, preventing extra-judicial killings, conducting independent investigations on human-rights violations, decongesting prisons, further expanding access to justice, protecting human-rights defenders and journalists, promoting the rights to education, health, and adequate standard of living, upholding the rights of persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, women, children, refugees, and stateless persons.
He said the government will review the rest of the recommendations that he said the delegation believes rest on less than solid premises or are not in line with Philippine cultural values, religious beliefs and national identity.
“As our system of government consists of three independent and co-equal branches, each with its own mandate, we will review them in consultation with relevant stakeholders back home. We will submit our positions on these deferred recommendations in due course,” he added.