On Duterte siblings’ threats

THE National Union of Journalists of the Philippines views with concern the statements of Davao Mayor Sarah Duterte against broadcaster Dodong Solis, general manager of Radyo ni Juan-Davao City.

The mayor has resorted to personal attacks in response to commentaries of Solis on the agrarian unrest between farmers and Lapanday Foods Corp.; the recent attack of New People’s Army rebels against the company that unfortunately resulted in the death of a bystander; and on statements she issued, including her husband Manases “Mans” Carpio’s association with Lapanday as lawyer.

Solis’ remarks are part of his work as a broadcaster and an exercise of his constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression.

The mayor has the same right to refute these remarks.

But in a statement, the mayor said: “Naluoy kos imong asawa, iyaha kinabuhi nagdepende ra intawn sa imong babà, di pud siya kaayo makalayo kay gamay rapud baya imong utok,” Duterte said in a Facebook post. (I pity your wife, your life only depends on your mouth, she can’t leave you because you have a small brain. If I were her, I would leave you.)

“I am fair game but do not touch my husband. Open your mouth again about my husband and I will tell your wife and your entire family about your secrets.”

Her brother and vice mayor Paolo Duterte exercised the same power on Solis, with the former threatening to beat up the broadcaster.

“Asa man imong pangutok? Kinsa ka? Wa ko kaila nimo! Sikat ka o gapasikat?” said the vice mayor in an open letter posted on his Facebook page. (Where’s your brain huh? Who are you anyway? I don’t know you! Are you famous or just trying to be one?)

“Ayaw ko unahi kay ug imo hilabtan akong pamilya di ko mag duha duha ug bukbok nimo.” (Don’t start with me, because if you do, I won’t think twice to beat you up.)

Resorting to personal attacks and veiled threats is alarming especially coming from an official who has physically attacked and publicly humiliated a court sheriff whom she perceived to have defied her instructions in the demolition of houses of informal settlers.

The mayor is no ordinary person. She wields influence and power not only due to her office but as daughter of the highest official of the country.

As a public official, she is subject to commentaries and criticisms especially from the press and should not respond with personal attacks and threats. –Ryan Rosauro, chairperson, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

Empty Rhetoric

THE Philippines’ State report for the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council demonstrate the government’s empty rhetoric on human and people’s rights. Impunity still remains, rights abuses continue, no one has been held to account for the violations and justice remains elusive for the victims.

Human rights cases, including extrajudicial killings in line with the government’s counter-insurgency program and the war on drugs, were downplayed in the draft government report, while there were numerous misleading claims on compliance to the recommendations of States during the 2008 and 2012 UPR sessions.

The government report stated that there have been only two extrajudicial killings in the nine months of the Duterte administration. Fifty-five peasants and indigenous people were killed due to the counter-insurgency war of the military from July 2016 to April 2017 while hundreds if not thousands were killed in line with the anti-drug campaign of the corrupt and brutish police force. These figures are far from those stated in the report.

Even weeks and days before the rights review, extrajudicial killings by military perpetrators continue, the most recent among the cases are the massacre of three residents in Masbate and an indigenous people’s leader in Compostela Valley.

On April 20, 2017, a grandmother and her two grandchildren were killed by composite elements of the 3rd Scout Ranger and 903rd Brigade in Sitio Lubugan, Pananawan, Cawayan, Masabate. Lolita Pepito, 70, and her two grandkids, aged 9 and 12, were killed when State forces surrounded and indiscriminately fired at their residence. On May 4, 2017, at around 4 pm, Lumad leader Federico Plaza was shot dead by unnamed assailants believed to be members of 71st and 46th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army.

Government figures and claims on the outputs of the inter-agency committee on extra-legal killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, which was created by virtue of former President Benigno Aquino III’s Administrative Order 35 and headed by the then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima are questionable. Karapatan documented 249 victims of extrajudicial killing (including 12 cases of massacre), 244 torture victims, and 17 desaparecidos (from 2012-June 30,2016).

No conviction has been attained in any of the said cases nor has there been swift and impartial prosecution while many of the State perpetrators have not been arrested to this day. The Aquino government’s accountability can never be glossed over by task forces that have not rendered justice and have instead acted as elegant smokescreens to absolve the perpetrators.

Despite previous recommendations of other States through international human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), extrajudicial killings, torture and other rights abuses committed with impunity remain unabated due to continuing repressive State policies and counter-insurgency programs and the socio-economic and political ills that plague the country. These violations are state-sponsored, systemic and have affected a great majority of the Philippine population.

Past regimes and the current administration should be made to account, and crimes against the Filipino people be exposed. We need justice. We call on the Duterte administration to stop the killings and the fascist and repressive policies, and instead implement pro-people programs. –Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general