PH under fire for “misleading” EJK report

Live Stream of the Periodic Review in the Commission on Human Rights Office (Photo:Commission on Human Rights Philippines/Facebook.com)

Various groups had criticized the Philippines’ report on the state of human rights violations and extrajudicial killings in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNCHR) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The UPR Watch, an alliance of Human Rights Groups tasked to monitor the Philippine’s Review had issued a statement on Monday saying that the Philippine report was misleading and it had failed to illustrate the real current situation of human rights in the country.

“Rights abuses remain unabated due to continuing repressive state policies and counter-insurgency programs and the socio-economic and political ills that plague the country.” It said.

The statement also stated that the illegal drugs campaign of the Duterte Administration and the counterinsurgency efforts of the previous administration have exacerbated the killings, disappearance, torture and illegal arrests among other forms of rights abuses.

It also said that the Philippine delegation headed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs Menardo Guevarra had missed the other cases of extrajudicial killings that continued since the first Philippine review in 2008.

According to Rose Trajano of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, the Philippine Delegation had ignored other issues involving the Administration’s war on drugs such as the statements and warnings of the Chief Executive towards drug suspects.

“We have seen that this is a major issue. We are not stupid to not understand what the Philippine representatives are trying to do, to gloss over what is happening in the Philippines.” She said.

On the other hand, other figures are urging the Administration to allow the international community to conduct their own investigation of human rights violations in the country.

Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said that if the Duterte Administration has nothing to hide then it should let UN investigate cases without conditions.

According to Aquino out of the 47 UN member states, 45 had demanded the Philippines to investigate the killings.
“This is a wake-up call for us. The whole world is seeking accountability on our part. If the request is to have a formal investigation happens, we should grant that request.” He said.