Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 13) — The Philippines and its civic spaces remain repressed one year into the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as little has been done to improve the protection of human rights in the country, an international watchdog observed.
This comes amid “virtually non-existent accountability” on the arrest and detention of activists, the criminalization and attacks on journalists, and the red-tagging of human rights defenders, rights monitor Civicus said in a report published Thursday citing local progressive groups.
It described “civic space” as created by a set of universally-accepted rules, allowing people to organize, participate, and communicate with one another freely, thus influencing political and social structures.
The watchdog rated the state of civic space in the Philippines 34 out of 100, or “repressed.” This means it is “significantly constrained.” Individuals and civil society members who are vocal critics of those in power are at risk of “surveillance, harassment, intimidation, imprisonment, injury, and death.”
Civicus’ report highlighted the prosecution, killings, and disappearances of activists and critics of the government, such as Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil “Bazoo” de Jesus. The two indigenous rights defenders have been missing since April.
The case of detained former Senator Leila de Lima — an outspoken critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration’s bloody drug war — was also pointed out. While she has been acquitted in two drug cases, she faces one last.
She has been detained since Feb. 24, 2017.
Civicus was also alarmed by the violence faced by Filipino journalists, specifically: the killing of Oriental Mindoro Radio journalist Cresenciano Bundoquin and the attack on photojournalist Joshua Abide and his family, which left his four-year-old nephew dead and three others wounded.
Last October, a few months into Marcos’ presidency, veteran broadcast journalist Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa was brutally gunned down outside his barangay.
Civicus also called attention to red-tagging through the cases of Windel Bolinget, Jen Awingan, Sarah Abellon-Alikes, and Steve Tauli. The four are leaders of the Cordillera People’s Alliance whom the Anti-Terrorism Council in June designated as terrorists and accused of communist links.
