Last week the House approve on the third reading the Human Rights Defenders Bill. The NTF-ELCAC says this is a dangerous bill and will only help the cause of the CPP-NPA.
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| https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1165975 |
The National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Thursday expressed its opposition anew to the Human Rights Defenders bill, describing it as "dangerous" and potentially "unconstitutional".
The statement comes after the House of Representatives approved the bill on third and final reading last Monday, with 200 affirmative votes, zero negative, and no abstention.
House Bill 10576 or the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act seeks to grant human rights defenders the right to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms; form groups, associations, and organizations; solicit, receive, and utilize resources; seek, receive and disseminate information; and develop and advocate for human rights ideas, among others. A counterpart measure, meanwhile, is pending in the Senate.
Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy, NTF-ELCAC spokesperson for sectoral concerns, said the bill could "serve and protect the interest of terrorist organizations such as the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF)."
"This bill, if passed into a law, will open the floodgates of abuse and torment on our people by terrorists like the CPP-NPA-NDF and it will make the Anti-Terrorism Law that was recently declared constitutional by the Supreme Court ineffective and toothless," she said.
She said the NTF-ELCAC condemned “in no uncertain terms” the approval of the bill “that is dangerous as it is unconstitutional and labeled to mean the very opposite of what it pretends to be -- the Human Rights Defenders Bill.”
Badoy argued that the bill offers "a porous and overboard definition" of human rights defenders and that its basic premise is "the same basic premise of the CPP-NPA-NDF that the State is the No.1 violator of human rights."
"[It] is really hilarious that these pretend-legislators have arrogated unto themselves, through this ludicrous bill, the right to define who are and aren’t ’human rights defenders' -- a definition so porous in its broadness that even the ISIS, the Abu Sayyaf and of course, the CPP-NPA-NDF can be defined as human rights defenders," she said.
"And once identified as 'human rights defender, they will be exempt from sacrosanct laws of the land and cannot be touched by the Anti Money Laundering Council because looking into financial records of a 'human rights defender' will be a crime once this ridiculous bill is passed into law," she added.
Badoy said under the proposed measure, "human rights defenders cannot be identified as members of the CPP-NPA-NDF even if they are indeed members of the CPP-NPA-NDF and they will be exempt from Terrorism Financing Laws."
"How then can the government protect the Filipino people from terrorism if we cannot stop terrorism financing or take off masks of terrorists who pretend to be human rights defenders? This is a bill therefore that eradicates the notions of state, judiciary, and due process and bypasses government agencies and the laws of our land," she said.
"There is no other recourse, therefore, but for this bill to be junked," she added.
"These pretend legislators?" These are the same people who passed the anti-terrorism bill last year. However, while the passage of this bill was 200-0-0 the anti-terrorism law was passed with 173 yes 31 no and 29 abstaining. Really, Badoy should stop name calling and stick to the facts of the matter. And it could be that she is correct. Here is the definition of a Human Rights Defender from the text of the bill:
b. Human Rights Defender refers to any person who, by one’s self or in association with others, acts or seeks to act to protect, promote or strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms and welfare of the people, at the local, national, regional, and international levels;
SEC. 6. Right to Form Groups, Associations and Organizations. – Everyone, whether as an individual or in association with others, has the right to form, join, or associate with and participate in local, national, regional, or international organizations, formal or informal and registered or unregistered, for the purpose of promoting and striving for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
SEC. 11. Rights Against Vilification. – Everyone, whether as an individual or in association with others, has the right to protection against and redress from any act of false labeling or name calling, malicious and fabricated accusations against any offense, or any other kind of vilification.
SEC. 14. Right to Peaceful Assembly. – (1) Everyone, whether as an individual or in association with others, has the right to meet or assemble peacefully as well as to participate in peaceful activities concerning human rights and fundamental freedoms, free from interference that is arbitrary or unlawful by public authorities and private actors, at the local, national, regional or international level.
(2) The right referred to in subsection (1) includes the right to plan, organize, participate in and disseminate information regarding peaceful activities concerning human rights and fundamental freedoms, including demonstrations, protests, seminars and meetings, whether conducted in a public or private place.
Many of the rights listed in this bill can be found in Article 3 of the 1987 constitution which is the Bill of Rights. Following this list is Chapter 3 which describes the obligations of the government towards Human Rights Defenders. Here are a few of those obligations.
SEC. 24. Obligation to Respect, Promote, Protect, and Fulfill the Rights of Human Rights Defenders. – Public authorities shall take all necessary measures to ensure: (1) that the human rights and fundamental freedoms in Chapter II of this Act are effectively guaranteed and protected; (2) that all laws, policies and programs of government are consistent with the rights in Chapter II of this Act; and (3) that human rights defenders are able to freely undertake their activities and work in a safe and enabling environment without restrictions.
SEC. 29. Obligation to Penalize Intimidation or Reprisal. – Any public authority or private actor who is found guilty of acts of revenge or intimidation against a person on the grounds of or in connection with the person’s status, work, activities as a human rights defender, shall be penalized under the appropriate provision of the Revised Penal Code, in addition to administrative or civil sanctions that may be imposed considering the gravity of the offense, upon the discretion of the court or competent authority.
SEC. 30. Obligation to Refrain from Derogatory and Unfounded Labeling. – (1) Under no circumstance shall public authorities engage in false, unfounded and derogatory labeling of human rights defenders including identifying them as “reds,” “communists,” “terrorists” or “enemies of the State”.
It seems section 30 is what is really sticking in Badoy's craw. Under this law anyone designated a Human Rights Defender should not be labeled as a red, a communist, terrorist, or enemy of the state. According to her that would effectively protect the entire Makabayan Bloc which the NTF-ELCAC has designated reds, communists, terrorist, and enemies of the state.
Chapter 4 of this bill lays out the creation of a Human Rights Defenders Committee. Who will be on this committee?
SEC. 41. Creation and Composition of the Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee. – (1) There shall be an independent collegial body to be known as the Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee, herein referred to as the Committee, that shall be composed of a Chairperson and six (6) Members. The Chairperson shall be selected by the Commissioners of the Commission on Human Rights from among themselves in an en banc session. The six (6) members shall be jointly nominated by two (2) representatives each of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (Karapatan), Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), and the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) in a meeting called for the purpose, without prejudice to the nominations of other human rights organizations who have proven track records of probity and independence.
It is this section that the NTF-ELCAC claims seeks to institutionalize the CPP-NPA in the government because they believe those groups are fronts.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/11/10/2140404/task-force-bill-protect-human-rights-defenders-unnecessary-contrary-law |
Undersecretary Severo Catura said the proposed legislation "seeks to institutionalize in the government, groups that are known fronts of the [Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front]" by making members of rights group Karapatan and lawyers' group National Union of People's Lawyers "mandatory members of the so-called 'Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee' that will be created once the law is enacted."
The government has taken the position that Karapatan, NUPL and other human rights and activist groups are fronts for communist rebels. The practice of conflating support for or membership in these groups with being involved in the communist insurgency is among the concerns raised in oral arguments at the Supreme Court against the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The government has had several decades to prove the links between the CPP-NPA and the aforementioned groups but they have never been able to prove a thing. The Comelec still allows the Makabayan Bloc to participate in elections and the NUPL and Karapatan have yet to be shut down despite the government claiming they are enemies of the state. It is simply allegation after allegation. That is the problem here. Allegations are made and then shoddy warrants are executed which lead to the unlawful arrests and often deaths of human rights workers.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1540944/nbi-pnp-cidg-raid-vs-activistshad-peculiar-nature-of-ejk |
In the official report of the Philippine National Police, activist Ariel Evangelista and his wife, Ana Mariz, resisted arrest and engaged law enforcers in a gunfight during a raid in Nasugbu, Batangas, at dawn on March 7, 2021.
That’s not, however, what the National Bureau of Investigation gathered from eyewitnesses, whose accounts of the couple’s “extrajudicial killing” (EJK) mainly formed the basis of the murder complaint the NBI filed on Friday against 17 policemen involved in the raid.
The officers were part of a bigger operation jointly conducted by the police and the military in the Calabarzon region that early morning. The simultaneous raids resulted in what militant groups would later condemn as the “Bloody Sunday” massacre.
What the NTF-ELCAC should consider is why was such a bill passed? The answer is because activists are constantly being harassed and killed by the PNP and AFP as enemies of the state. That is a wrong that needs to be rectified. With "Human Rights Defender" being so broadly defined this bill is probably not going to solve anything.
It's likely this bill won't be ratified by the Senate and Duterte would never sign such a thing.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/01/18/2154739/passage-human-rights-defendersprotection-bill-might-stall-senate |
"Unfortunately, there is slim to none chance for this measure to be passed this Congress," de Lima told Philstar.com through her media relations officer on Tuesday.
"The topic of the bill necessitates extended deliberations in the Senate in both committee and plenary levels. Given the present extended office closure due to the pandemic, there might not be enough time to give this measure the scrutiny it deserves," she added.
Even if Congress passes the bill, she said that it is "almost certain that President Rodrigo Duterte will veto it."
So, Badoy has nothing to worry about. In fact, the House unanimously passed a Human Rights Defenders bill in June 2019 but the Senate failed to act on it just as they will likely do this time. Now if she only would explain the financial anomalies in the NTF-ELCAC's projects that the COA brought to our notice last year.
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