Vice-President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
HUMAN rights should be inherent in governance, being the “core and soul” of the Constitution and of the country, Vice President Leni Robredo said on Tuesday.
Robredo made the comment in a press conference, in response to a question on whether or not she agreed with President Duterte who had said in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) that “human rights cannot be used as a shield or as an excuse to destroy the country.”
“Yes, I believe that (human rights) should not be used as an excuse for such an end. But we should remember that our Constitution is known all over the world as a bastion of human rights,” Robredo said.
She said human rights should not be set aside when it came to governance and all other government “drives.”
“This is the totality, the core and the soul of our country,” Robredo, a lawyer who did pro bono work for indigents years ago, said.
She said the 1987 Constitution was crafted following a regime that did not give importance to human rights, referring to the martial law period from 1972 to 1986 when dissenters to the Marcos regime were either killed or have disappeared.
“A big part of our Constitution, again and again, reminds us that (human rights) is the soul of our country,” she said.
In his Sona Monday, President Duterte assailed calls for his administration to respect human rights amid the rising number of killings of alleged drug users and pushers.
The President harped on a photograph in the Inquirer that showed a woman embracing her partner, alleged to be a drug pusher, who had been shot and killed in Pasay City, dismissing it as “drama.”
“Eh tapos nandyan ka nakabulagta (Then there you are dead) and you are portrayed in a broadsheet na parang (like) Mother Mary cradling the dead cadaver of Jesus Christ. Eh yan, yang mga yan magda-dramahan tayo dito (That’s the type of drama we have here),” he said.
Vigilantism
Robredo has twice issued strong statements against the rising body count, expressing concern over vigilantism and calling for an investigation into the killings.
As of Tuesday, the Inquirer kill list showed 364 deaths of alleged drug pushers and users.
Robredo also reiterated her opposition to reviving the death penalty.
“I think my stand here is something the administration will respect,” she said.
She said she also did not agree with lowering the age of criminal liability from 15 years old to 9 years old, vowing to voice her opposition to this.
“Kokontra ako (I’ll oppose any) on moves na bababaan ito (lowering the age),” said Robredo, one of the authors of the juvenile justice law when she was in the House of Representatives.
She said that setting the age of criminal liability at 15 years in the law was well thought-out and not something “chosen randomly from out of the numbers we had.”
“What we have in the law is sufficient.”
She said it would be a “terrifying situation” if the death penalty were revived and the age of criminal liability lowered.
“It’s scary to have children who could be sentenced to death,” she said.