Vice President Leni Robredo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
While Vice President Leni Robredo believes that human rights should not be used as a shield to destroy the country, she maintained that the government should respect it at all times, saying human rights is the “core and soul of the country.”
Robredo was reacting to a statement of President Rodrigo Duterte during his first State of the Nation Address on Monday.
Addressing criticisms that the government is violating human rights in its anti-drug war, Duterte said: “Human rights must work to uplift human dignity. But human rights cannot be used as a shield or excuse to destroy the country.”
READ: Duterte: Don’t use human rights as excuse to destroy PH
“Ako naniniwala akong hindi dapat ito ginagawang panangga pero dapat ding alalahanin natin na ‘yung ating Constitution kilala sa buong mundo bilang bastion ng human rights,” Robredo said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
(I also believe that human rights should not be used as a shield, but we must also remember that our Constitution is known all over the world as a bastion of human rights.)
READ: Robredo: Stop senseless killings, violence
“Dapat hindi natin to nakakalimutan sa lahat ng ginagawa natin pagdating sa governance, sa lahat ng drive na ginagawa natin ngayon,” she added.
(We should not forget this in all the things we do when it comes to governance, and all the drives we are carrying out now.)
The Vice President noted that the 1987 Constitution was created after a regime that had disregarded human rights.
Robredo, a human rights lawyer, has been very vocal in denouncing the martial law abuses during the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the father of her rival in the vice presidential race, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
“Kung naaalala natin, kung magbabalik-tanaw tayo sa paggawa ng 1987 Constitution, galing tayo sa isang rehimen na hindi binigyan ng malaking diin ‘yung human rights. Malaking bahagi ng ating Constitution ay again and again ni-reremind tayo na buod ito ng ating kaluluwa bilang isang bansa,” she said.
(If we recall, the 1987 Constitution was created after we experienced a regime that did not give importance to human rights. It has been said over and over again that the Constitution is the nucleus of our soul as a nation.)
Since Duterte was elected, the Philippine National Police has recorded close to 300 deaths, including those killed in anti-drug operations and supposedly vigilante killings. IDL/rga
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