Human rights group disputes PHL govt's Geneva report

The Philippine government's report on the country's human rights situation was not a true reflection of the reality on the ground, a conglomeration of human rights organizations said on Monday.

In a statement, Philippine Universal Periodic Review Watch's (UPR Watch's) Atty. Ephraim Cortez disputed the government panel's report at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, which claimed that the government continued to uphold and respect human rights.

The government panel, in their opening remarks, had affirmed its "commitment to the universality, indivisibility, interdependence, and interrelatedness of all human rights, respectful of our unique national and regional particularities borne by our diverse historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds."

However, Cortez said "this affirmation does not fully reveal the reality on the human right situation in the Philippines, and the report, as a whole, failed to implement the recommendations as contained in the 2012 UPR."

The UPR Watch sent a 10-man delegation to Geneva to urge the UN to look into the country's human rights situation.

Cortez said that despite the government's denials that extrajudicial killings were state-sponsored, it could not deny that thousands of drug suspects and human rights defenders had been killed since Rodrigo Duterte became president.

"These killings continue under the Duterte Administration where 55 similar killings, and more than 8,000 drug related killings have been reported," he added.

Cortez also pointed out that the inter-agency committee created by former President Benigno Aquino III through Administrative Order 35 and which was tasked to investigate extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, had made no progress.

"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," he explained.

Moreover, Cortez also raised several issues which the government should be held accountable for, such as the government's failure to address socio-economic and sectoral issues, including those involving  vulnerable sectors.

He added that there were also indications of the government's "utter disregard for the respect of the peoples’ civil and political rights."

Several UN member-states were alarmed over the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country blamed on President Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs, and over his proposal to reinstate the death penalty. — Joseph Tristan Roxas/DVM, GMA News