Human rights under Marcos: Duterte’s successor continues legacy of violations and abuse
DESPITE ASSURANCES from the new President, attacks against critics of the government and their families are still making headlines in TV, print, and online reports. Quite alarmingly, one violation has occurred every week since 2023 began.
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to protect human rights. Unlike his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, he has been mum on red-tagging and attacks against critics of the government.
Red-tagging, or the practice of the military and police to brand as communist or terrorist anyone critical of the government, is one of Duterte’s foul legacies. Some of those red-tagged have reported experiencing harassment, while others have even been killed.
In effect validating the deadly practice of red-tagging, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA) was adopted into law in June 2020 after Duterte certified the bill as urgent. Civil society groups expressed concern over the provisions of the ATA, particularly the overbroad definition of “terrorism” and related offenses penalized by the statute. Further, the law gives the Anti-Terror Council (ATC) power to designate individuals or groups as “terrorists” despite the flimsiest of evidence or with no probable cause; very clearly targeting critics of the government.
Eight cases in less than two months
CMFR is providing the following record of recent cases weaponizing the law against freedom of expression from January 1 to February 14, 2023, and how long these were covered by the media.
In some cases, the victims were not outrightly tagged as members of alleged terrorist groups, but some have family members involved in political movements.
Below are eight cases of a death threat, three arrests, two harassments, a designation, and a recorded abduction that the media reported:
- On January 2, multi-awarded artist Bonifacio Ilagan received a death threat through a phone call from an unknown number. The person who called introduced himself as the commander of a unit waiting for a “final order from the higher ups.” Ilagan said that the caller warned him and said they can “wipe out” suspected communists. Ilagan has been an activist since the Marcos Sr. dictatorship.
Media reported it until January 7, after the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said it had began investigating the matter.
- On January 8, Bona Fides Lusania, daughter of a political prisoner, was subjected to a strip search when she visited her father, Julio Lasania. Just a few steps from the door, she was told to remove her top and was frisked from head to toe. Without any benefit of privacy, she said jail guards saw her in full view as she was searched only wearing her upper undergarments, contrary to guidelines for strip searching jail visitors.
Media attention lasted until January 20, when the CHR and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) conducted a probe on the matter. CHR said it will also look into other similar incidents.
- On January 10, Cebu-based development workers and labor rights advocates Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha were abducted after disembarking at the City’s Pier 6. A video posted online and taken by a concerned citizen, showed them being forced into a car parked right by the docking area. Gumanao and Dayoha said that the abductors introduced themselves as police officers and no help was provided despite the presence of port authorities, including the Philippine Coast Guard, in the area. After five days of psychological torture, they were rescued on January 16. Their parents are planning to file charges.
Media reported on it until January 24, after the update of their plan to take legal action. Inquirer’s editorial on January 20 asked, “Are we back to the martial law era when government agents could just grab people off the streets?” The editorial also looked back to similar cases of arrests and threats.
- On January 24, a Cordilleran activist and eight other individuals, including a community journalist, were charged with rebellion by the Regional Trial Court Branch 2. One of them, Jennifer Awingan, a staff of Cordillera Peoples Alliance, an indigenous peoples (IP) network, was arrested on January 30. Awingan is the mother of Kara Taggaoa, Kilusang Mayo Uno’s international officer who was also arrested last year on fabricated charges.
Rappler, Inquirer, Philstar.com, Bulatlat, and Northern Dispatch reported on the issue, which was in the news until February 7 when Awingan posted bail. Northern Dispatch on February 1 also released a statement condemning the rebellion charge against their Ilocos correspondent Niño Oconer.
- On January 29, Ruben Abenir Saluta, a retired National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant, was arrested along with his wife, Presentacion, and a female companion, Yvonne Losaria. Saluta was among the peace consultants released in 2016 to participate in peace negotiations. He and his wife suffer from hypertension and heart disease.
Bulatlat, Altermidya, Inquirer, and Manila Bulletin reported on this, but only the two alternative news accounts did not rely on the police narrative and noted the consultant’s retirement and health condition.
- On January 30, the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) designated community doctor, Dr. Maria Natividad Marian Silva “Naty” Castro, as a terrorist under its Resolution No. 35. Castro, who helped set up health centers for IPs in Mindanao, was arrested February last year for alleged kidnapping and illegal detention charges.
Media sustained coverage until February 1. An Inquirer column on February 10 and and a Freeman column on February 6 discussed Castro’s case and the terror that the ATA itself is inflicting on citizens.
- On February 1, a humanitarian mission of Karapatan in the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon Province was subjected to a series of threats and harassment by the military. The human rights group was assisting families to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones who were alleged NPA members killed in the area. However, drivers of the mission were interrogated and all the names of passengers were taken. Two vehicles were also impounded for alleged Land Transportation Office (LTO) violations. Further, the drivers who went to the LTO Office were forced by the LTO Chief and a police official to admit that they and the passengers were members of the NPA.
Only Kodao Productions and Altermidya reported on this.
- On February 6, Dr. Melania Flores, UP Professor and former President of the All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU) was arrested inside her home in UP Diliman for alleged failure to remit SSS contributions for her housemaid. Flores said she was not aware of the case and that the housekeeper’s employment had ended in 2013. Flores added that her arrest is in violation of the UP-DND Accord which prohibits uniformed personnel from entering the campus without prior coordination.
Media attention lasted until February 9, with the usual interviews from both parties and the police saying that the issue should not be “overstretch(ed).” Inquirer’s editorial on February 14 stood out for pointing to the “obvious reason” of singling out Flores, saying that Flores is a marked “militant” that the police and military “love to red-tag.”
Different tactics, similar reality
In a Business World report on January 12, Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted the continuous attacks under a seeming Duterte clone. Comparing the realities under Duterte and under Marcos, Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said that “the reality is nothing has changed but only a change in tone and a greater effort in public relations.”
VERA Files on the same day cited HRW which recalled victims of red-tagging last year in the Marcos administration. In September 2022, former anti-communist task force spokesperson Lorraine Badoy threatened to kill in a social media post Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar, for dismissing the government’s petition to outlaw the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). CMFR previously noted earlier cases of red-tagging in the Marcos administration which have led not only to violence but even extrajudicial killings.
Apart from red-tagging and the weaponization of ATA against freedom of expression, other human rights violations have continued under the “new” Marcos administration – the continuous “drug war” killings, lack of police accountability, and imprisonment of dissenters.
Bulatlat on January 27 noted the “double standards” of the justice system. Comparing the years-long cases of political prisoners to the case of the son of Secretary of Justice (SOJ) Jesus Crispin Remulla and chief of staff of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, the special report correctly noted that in the Philippines, justice is often denied “when you are poor and political.”
The cases mentioned above are more than numbers, in each comes a story of an individual and a family. More than a story, this is a pattern. Perhaps the media and the public should view the supposedly “new” administration as a continuation of the bloody legacies of Marcos Sr. and terror regimes of Duterte.