EXTRAJUDICIAL killings, brazen assaults on journalists and political activists, and other atrocities orchestrated throughout the administration of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. have left the Philippines' human rights status in a terrible state.
According to Maria Jennifer Guste, convener for Defend NGOs Alliance in the Philippines, the Marcos administration has been targeting leftist activist groups across the country through a legal system, which has further limited democratic space.
“The current state of human rights situation in the country remains critical or it is not improving, and it is in fact, the same or not worse than the previous administration. Force disappearances are continuing with impunity,” Guste cited in an interview with SunStar Davao at the sideline of the first Mindanao forum workshop on the state of CSOs, NGOs, and POs in the Philippines on Saturday, November 16, 2024, in Davao City.
She added that Marcos Jr.’s leadership has been targeting or “red-tagging” civic groups and other grassroots organizations, accusing them as the enemy of the state.
The human rights and development defenders proceeded to disclose that since 2022 up until June of this year, harassment cases and charges related to terrorism in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao have increased to 59 in development workers and 21 in different non-government organizations.
Meanwhile, Guste added that around 15 forced disappearances, 755 political prisoners, 145 illegal or arbitrary arrests, and 105 unjustified killings have been recorded as facial evidence which are all refuted by the Marcos Jr. administration.
“Yung atake sa mga development NGOs, bagama’t dekadang-dekada na sila nagsisilbi at tumutugon sa mga pangangailangan ng mga mamamayan na madalas hindi natutugunan ng ating gobyerno ay sila yung inaatake,” she said.
(The attack on development NGOs, although they have been serving and responding to the needs of the people that our government had not met for decades are the ones being attacked instead).
Conducted by The Defend NGOs Alliance-Mindanao Convenor’s Group, topics and inputs that were discussed in the interactive workshop included Financing Terrorism Measures, Global Counter-Terrorism, the Anti Terrorism Law of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Suppression and Prevention Act of 2012.
Guste clarified that their current goals were to strengthen protections for NGOs and development workers in the country, who are vulnerable to vilification and red-tagging, harassment and obstruction, including false accusations and regulatory meddling, and even outright violent attacks.
The official then urged the present administration to eliminate repressive legal tools used against them, such as the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), as suggested by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs. DEF
