Karapatan hits Palace for direct attack on 2 UN execs

Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan (Photo from her Facebook page)

A human-rights group criticized the Duterte administration on Sunday for personally attacking the United Nations experts who had warned the government that extended martial law in Mindanao could bring more human-rights violations in the region.

Left-leaning group Karapatan took swipe at Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s statement telling UN special rapporteurs Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Cecilia Jimenez-Damary not to embarrass the country before the international community.

READ: Palace to 2 UN execs: Don’t embarrass PH

Tauli-Corpuz, special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, and Jimenez-Damary, special rapporteur on internally displaced people, said the ongoing militarization in Mindanao has “massive and potentially irreversible” impact on human rights of some Lumads.

“It is infuriating that instead of taking note of and acting on the reported violations, the Duterte government resorts to ‘ad hominem’ attacks to deflect accountability, in addition to its adamant refusal to be subjected to independent investigations,” Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.

Roque on Friday called on the UN experts, who are both Filipinos, not to use their post to embarrass the government.

“Both special rapporteurs should be more circumspect on their statements given that they were elected to the post upon the behest of the former administration and that their observations made so publicly as they were appeared to be very partisan,” Roque said.

“So I appeal to these two Filipinos, or be it special rapporteurs, not to use their post for the purpose of embarassing the Duterte administration,” he added.

Palabay emphasized that actions of UN independent experts help bring to the public’s attention the human rights situation in the Philippines, amid the government’s efforts to “deny the existence of extrajudicial killings and rights violations in the country.”

“We are one with the UN experts in expressing concern on the further deterioration of the human rights situation in Mindanao, especially with the extension of martial law this 2018 and the continuing implementation of the government’s counter-insurgency program,” she said.

Since the declaration of martial law on May 23, 2017 to November 2017, Karapatan has recorded at least 29 victims of extrajudicial killings in the Mindanao, 15 of which were in the Southern Mindanao region.

Many of the victims were members of local peasant and indigenous organizations targeted for their local campaigns for genuine agrarian reform and against militarization, Palabay said.
Karapatan has documented 15 cases of torture, 23 victims of frustrated extrajudicial killings, 58 victims of illegal arrest and detention, and 335,686 victims of indiscriminate gunfire and aerial bombings.

The group has also recorded the forced evacuation of 401,730 individuals; 16,612 were documented outside of Marawi City, mostly in the regions of Caraga, Southern Mindanao, and Socksargen. /jpv