{"id":266106,"date":"2020-08-22T00:22:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T04:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=266106"},"modified":"2020-08-22T00:22:11","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T04:22:11","slug":"no-prrd-order-to-hide-reports-on-rights-defenders-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/22\/no-prrd-order-to-hide-reports-on-rights-defenders-killings\/","title":{"rendered":"No PRRD order to hide reports on rights defenders\u2019 killings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Matina Enclaves in Davao City on August 17, 2020. ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong> \u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday strongly denied that President Rodrigo Duterte had directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to deny the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) access to reports on the killings of human rights activists and defenders in the country.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque issued the statement a day after CHR Commissioner Leah Tanodra-Armamento claimed that the commission\u2019s investigation into the deaths of 89 human rights defenders had been stalled because of Duterte\u2019s supposed intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no truth to the alleged report that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte instructed the Philippine National Police not to release or share their information to the Commission on Human Rights regarding the recent attacks against right defenders and activists,\u201d Roque said in a press statement.<\/p>\n

CHR is conducting a probe into the killings of human rights defenders and members of progressive groups that happened between 2017 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Some of the slain activities and rights defenders were tagged as communists by state forces and under surveillance, before they were killed, Tanodra-Armamento said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel on Friday.<\/p>\n

Tanodra-Armamento said the investigations on the 89 cases of killed human rights activists have yet to conclude because \u201cthere is an order from the President himself not to give the Commission on Human Rights the data\u201d related to their deaths.<\/p>\n

She added that CHR investigators can no longer rely on the police, unlike in the past that the commission was enjoying the cops\u2019 cooperation when they were still under then PNP chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Tanodra-Armamento\u2019s claim, the Duterte government is \u201cequally interested\u201d to know the identities of people behind the \u201cbrazen\u201d killings of the human rights defenders, Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque said identifying the culprits would absolve state agents who are being blamed for the deaths of the human rights activists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will leave no stone unturned to put these people behind bars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque also ensured that Duterte, as a lawyer, adheres to the rule of law.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Duterte) wants the wheels of justice to grind, for the sake of the victims of abuse and violence and their families,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday strongly denied that President Rodrigo Duterte had directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to deny …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":265676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266106","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=266106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266107,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266106\/revisions\/266107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}