Ako Bakwit calls on Senate to prioritize IDP rights bill amid pandemic

Rights group Ako Bakwit on Monday called on the Committee on Justice and Human Rights to prioritize the pending Internally Displaced Persons Rights Bill, saying the lives of IDPs have been made “much worse” by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, Ako Bakwit said there is an urgent need for an IDP rights framework and law in the country “now more than ever.”

“It is the responsibility of our government to serve IDPs through the form of policies that allow them protection and assistance, especially as COVID-19 continues to devastate our nation,” it said.

Ako Bakwit said IDPs continued to suffer through the denial of basic human rights such as freedom from torture and discriminatory treatment, access to food, water, sanitation, personal security, education, and health care.

As of July 2020, the group said more than 370,000 individuals have been “forcibly displaced” in Mindanao alone due to conflict, persecution, and violence.

“The pandemic has exceedingly worsened their plight, as they have become most vulnerable to the transmission of COVID-19 owing to substandard living conditions,” Ako Bakwit said.

The group added that IDP children are unable to receive proper forms of education as the country transitioned to blended learning due to the health crisis.

“[T]he nationwide shift to online instruction which has necessitated access to more advanced technological devices and internet connectivity, has excluded them even more ruthlessly.”

With this, Ako Bakwit called on the public to increase awareness of the ongoing struggles of IDPs by actively seeking updates on reliable social media platforms that aim to magnify their voices.

It asked Filipinos to counter discriminatory narratives against IDPs by “acknowledging that their circumstances are not by their own doing but a result of existing structures that benefit only a privileged portion of society.”

The group also encouraged the public to patronize businesses of IDPs as they “have the potential to become an asset to the community.”

Moreover, it demanded local government units to organize a system for IDPs where they can be properly identified and documented, “ providing them with ease when crossing checkpoints or receiving aids.”

The group also urged the public to donate resources through legitimated and trusted avenues dedicated to aiding IDPs.

“It has been said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Truly there are no differences between us and the least and the last among us: the disregard for the basic rights of our IDPs is an affront to our own freedoms,” it said.

“Nation-building is only possible when we choose to build bridges over forces that seek to divide us. It is time for us to rise and raise our home--together,” the group added. — Ma. Angelica Garcia/BM, GMA News