Human rights today

Despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being proclaimed 70 years ago, the situation on human rights is not looking good.

Here in the country, since the start of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s regime there have been allegations of human rights violations against the government by human rights advocates.

“With its... Oplan Kapayapaan, the Duterte government has committed 216 political extrajudicial killings, 2,000 illegal arrests, 100 torture cases, among other rights violations. As of this writing, there are already 540 political prisoners where 45 of them are women and 120 are sickly and elderly,” the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) said in a staement.

Allegations on human rights violations have plagued the all-out war against drug and the implementation of martial law in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, the government have belied most of the claims of human rights violations and have made statements that they are still upholding the rights of every person. The police and army have also repeatedly challenged critics to show proof of the alleged human rights violations. However, human rights abuses and violations are not only limited to the administration of President Duterte.

Of course, we should never forget about those who fell victim into the hands of former president Ferdinand Marcos. During the term of former president and now house speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, extrajudicial killings and military abuses were an issue; most notable was that of Sichi Bustamante-Gandinao, former chairman of the Misamis Oriental Farmers Organization and the coordinator of Bayan Muna. She was killed in front of her husband and daughter in March 2007.

During the time of President Benigno Aquino III, journalist killings were at its worst. “During Aquino’s first 40 months in office, from July 2010 to October 2013, at least 23 journalists were killed, among them 16 radio broadcasters and seven print journalists,” the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism said in a report published on November 23, 2018. There was also the Kidapawan massacre in April 1, 2016, which was towards the end of Aquino’s term. The Kidapawan incident was a violent dispersal of at least 3,000 protesters at the Kidapawan-Davao Highway in Kidapawan City, Cotabato that left two protesters dead, two police officers seriously wounded, and 179 farmers and police officers injured.

Looking back at the pages of history, the human rights situation in the country still has a long way to go. It is not only limited to those that were reported by the media. Human rights violations are hidden within the confines of communities, children being molested, young men and women being taken advantage of, workers’ salaries and benefits being held by erring employers, and the list goes on.

While the government assures that efforts have been made, we still cannot feel happy for the state of human rights in the country.