{"id":237631,"date":"2019-11-17T07:41:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T12:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=237631"},"modified":"2019-11-17T07:41:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T12:41:17","slug":"malacanang-blasts-us-senator-for-denouncing-ph-rights-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/17\/malacanang-blasts-us-senator-for-denouncing-ph-rights-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaca\u00f1ang blasts US senator for denouncing PH rights record"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In recent years, we have seen abhorrent human rights abuses by the Philippine government. This repression of trade unionists is a shameful attempt to silence people&#39;s rights and freedoms. More than ever, we must stand on the side of global human rights. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hJDrDJBX2y\">https:\/\/t.co\/hJDrDJBX2y<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BernieSanders\/status\/1195331868259999745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 15, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; There is nothing new about the remarks made by US Senator Bernie Sanders on the alleged human rights abuses made by the Philippine government, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Sanders, in a Tweet on Friday linking a post from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), said the &#8220;repression of trade unionists is a shameful attempt to silence people&#8217;s rights and freedoms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, however, said Sanders was merely reiterating unvalidated reports peddled by foreign news agencies.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAng tingin ko rin na<\/em>\u00a0shameful attempt\u00a0<em>din sa parte niya na magbigay siya ng impormasyon na hindi naman niya na-<\/em>validate (I think it is also a shameful attempt on his part to give information that is not validated),\u201d Panelo said in an interview over dzIQ.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cInuulit niya lang ang sinasabi ng mga kritiko na pine-<\/em>peddle\u00a0<em>sa<\/em>\u00a0foreign news agencies (He is merely repeating what critics say based on what has been peddled by foreign news agencies),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>In the ITUC report shared by Sanders titled &#8220;Philippines: Government Crackdown Targets Unions&#8221;, it claimed that the Duterte administration\u2019s drug war \u201chas been responsible for a reported 27,000 extra-judicial killings since it was launched by President Duterte in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth the ILO (International Labor Organization) and the United Nations\u2019 Human Rights Council have resolved to send high level missions to probe the human rights situation following widespread reports of extrajudicial killings and repression of trade-unions and their members,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n<p>It further noted that while the government pledged to investigate the killings of 43 trade unionists in a meeting with the ITUC in August, \u201cno progress has been reported and the government is yet to accept the ILO mission to the country, while the violence against activists continues with impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Panelo, meanwhile, defended anew joint operations conducted by police and military personnel in offices of activist groups who were suspected to be militants in Bacolod City and Metro Manila last October 31.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cPag merong raid ang<\/em>\u00a0PNP\u00a0<em>ibig sabihin meron silang<\/em>\u00a0intelligence report\u00a0<em>na hindi gumagawa ng tama ang mga organisasyon na yan, na hindi tama at labag sa batas<\/em>\u00a0(If the PNP conducts a raid, they have an intelligence report that an organization is up to no good which is against the law),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Kung mali naman ang<\/em>\u00a0raid (If conducting a raid is a wrong move), they can always go to court and sue them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Last Nov. 7, Panelo emphasized that it is government policy to investigate complaints on criminal activities and if evidence warrants it.<\/p>\n<p>The Palace official said security forces have to conduct surveillance as long as they had a basis to do so.<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 31, security forces raided offices of activist groups including Bayan Muna, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Gabriela, and Negros Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) which led to the arrest of at least 60 suspected militants, including 13 minors.<\/p>\n<p>The law enforcers found that some activist group members had firearms, explosives, and subversive documents.<\/p>\n<p>Groups have condemned raids conducted claiming that evidence was planted to justify the arrests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years, we have seen abhorrent human rights abuses by the Philippine government. This repression of trade unionists is &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":209743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237633,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237631\/revisions\/237633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}