UN, gov’t body back Baguio’s push for rights

RIGHT DIRECTION Quah Wei Vei, assistant human rights officer of the UN Human Rights Office (left), and Undersecretary Severo Catura, executive director of the Presidential Human Rights Commission Secretariat, express their support for Baguio City’s initiative to rebrand as an “inclusive human rights city” during an Aug. 14 public consultation. —Neil Clark Ongchangco

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Now that Baguio has rebranded as an “inclusive human rights city,” members of the local council intend to ask President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to improve the human rights environment using the funds of an anti-communist body that has been accused of Red-tagging and harassing activists here.

The city gave itself that designation through City Resolution No. 763 on Dec. 5, 2023, to ensure that no individual would suffer discrimination because of their ideological or sexual orientation, their age, or their race while in Baguio territory.

Resolution 763 received the support of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the government’s human rights “superbody” at a public consultation on Wednesday.

READ: Baguio as bastion of human rights

Baguio pursues governance “through a human rights lens,” said Undersecretary Severo Catura, executive director of the Presidential Human Rights Committee, which was originally formed by the late former President Corazon Aquino.

According to Catura, what makes Baguio unique as a “human rights city” is that it also advocates for indigenous Filipino rights and has served as a neutral mediation venue for tribal conflicts.

Malaysian Quah Wei Vei, assistant human rights officer of the UN Human Rights Office, said Baguio was among the few local governments that actively integrated human rights into their public programs, like South Korea, Indonesia and Turkey.

But because most rights projects require funding to become sustainable, the Baguio government has asked Catura to broker a meeting with Palace officials about repurposing the budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), said Councilor Jose Molintas, chair of the committee on laws that organized the event.

Fighting abuse

A human rights lawyer, Molintas, was included in a list of 600 people accused of conspiring with communists by the Department of Justice when it petitioned a Manila court in 2018 to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and the underground New People’s Army as terrorists.

The petition, which also listed former United Nations Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) co-founder Joanna Cariño, was dismissed in 2022 by Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar.

“The City of Baguio has stood up [for] critical issues and concerns [regarding] human rights, including human rights violations, vilification and threats against rights defenders; has committed that it is safe for activists; and has banned malicious Red-tagging tarpaulins,” Resolution 763 reads.

It highlights Baguio’s history with peaceful protests during martial law under strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr., including rallies by students who championed Cordillera’s “regionalization.” The city is also credited for its version of “people power” at Baguio Cathedral to protect soldiers who defected from the Marcos dictatorship during the 1986 Edsa Revolution.

The city council is drafting a human rights defenders law that will protect Baguio rights activists from unlawful government activities, as well as threats and harassment like Red-tagging, which is classified by the measure as a criminal offense with a set of penalties. Part of the mechanisms of Proposed Ordinance No. 0026-23 is to help activists defend themselves against unjust laws, Molintas told the Inquirer on Tuesday.

Delayed

But the measure has been delayed by intense debates with representatives of the military and police, and some council members, said one of the measure’s sponsors, Councilor Peter Fianza. On Monday, the council received Resolution No. 2 dated July 23 of the Cordillera Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC), which pushed for changes to the draft human defenders ordinance.

The RPOC said the proposed law should not clash with the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (Republic Act No. 11479), and claimed the measure could be “susceptible” to manipulation by “communist-terrorist fronts.” It also said provisions on Red-tagging should be deleted because these have not been defined by current laws, although a May 8 ruling by the Supreme Court declared Red-tagging a serious threat to the lives of its victims.

Cariño pushed for a collaboration between civil society and the military “to flesh out such a meaningful declaration [making Baguio] an inclusive human rights city.”

Catura said the law creating the Commission on Human Rights is being amended in order to include economic, cultural, and social rights in its coverage, with the police having the power to enforce these rights.

Vei said the Philippines helped put out the UN human rights standards shortly after the end of World War II and had ratified eight of the nine rights conventions except for a UN policy on enforced disappearances.

The Philippines therefore is obliged to heed these standards, she said.