What's the state of Philippine human rights under Marcos Jr?

Cecil Morella, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the President’s Hall of Malacañan Palace in Manila on June 2, 2023. Joey Razon, PNA" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/news/06/03/20230602-marcos-egov-ho-5.jpg"/><figcaption>President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the President’s Hall of Malacañan Palace in Manila on June 2, 2023. <em>Joey Razon, PNA</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA - When Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr was swept to power in 2022, human rights activists feared the worst.</p><p>Marcos had been a vocal supporter of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte&#x27;s drug war that killed thousands of people, and publicly praised his dictator father&#x27;s rule.</p><p>But, as he seeks to strengthen ties with Washington and attract foreign investment, Marcos has presented himself as more moderate than Duterte, who threatened to kill people and repeatedly disparaged human rights.</p><p>In reality, nearly a year into Marcos&#x27;s term, activists say little has changed on the ground.</p><p>After a judge&#x27;s decision on Wednesday to reject jailed Duterte critic Leila de Lima&#x27;s bail application, AFP looks at the state of human rights under Marcos.</p><div><strong>IS THERE STILL A DRUG WAR?</strong></div><p>During Duterte&#x27;s six-year drug war, thousands of mostly poor men were killed and an international investigation was launched into a possible crime against humanity.</p><p>Marcos has continued the crackdown but has pushed for more focus on prevention and rehabilitation.</p><p>He told police to go after major drug dealers and not &quot;the kid who makes 100 pesos ($2) a week selling weed&quot;.</p><p>Yet the bodies keep piling up.</p><p>More than 300 drug-related killings have been recorded since Marcos took office last June, according to figures compiled by Dahas, a University of the Philippines-backed research project that keeps count of drug-related killings.</p><p>That includes 175 in the first six months of Marcos&#x27;s presidency.</p><p>In November, police acknowledged that 46 drug suspects had been killed since he took office.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/05/23/marcos-admits-abuses-in-duterte-drug-war-says-syndicates-grew-stronger">Marcos admits &#x27;abuses&#x27; in Duterte drug war, says syndicates grew &#x27;stronger, wealthier&#x27;</a></li></ul><div><strong>DOES MARCOS OPPOSE ICC PROBE?</strong></div><p>Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the International Criminal Court in 2019 after the Hague-based tribunal started probing allegations of human rights abuses committed during his anti-narcotics campaign.</p><p>Marcos, who has been careful to avoid explicitly criticizing his predecessor&#x27;s policies, has ruled out rejoining the court.</p><p>His government has opposed the ICC&#x27;s investigation, insisting it has no jurisdiction and that the Philippine justice system is capable of investigating the alleged crimes.</p><p>Under pressure from the UN Human Rights Council, the Duterte government began examining hundreds of cases of drug operations that led to deaths.</p><p>That probe has continued under Marcos, but there has been little progress.</p><p>Only four police officers have been convicted for killing drug suspects in two separate cases since the start of the crackdown in 2016.</p><p>Rights groups estimate tens of thousands of people were killed during Duterte&#x27;s drug war.</p><p>Marcos told a democracy summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in March that Manila was committed to &quot;fight impunity&quot; and prosecute crimes, including those allegedly committed in the drug war.</p><p>But activists accuse Marcos of paying lip service to human rights during meetings with foreign diplomats, pointing out that he has not explicitly ordered police to end the violence.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aYd-aaXgD-g?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><strong>DOES &#x27;RED-TAGGING&#x27; STILL HAPPEN?</strong></div><p>A decades-old strategy to smear or silence critics in the Philippines has been to link the person or group to communist rebels trying to overthrow the government.</p><p>The practice, known as &quot;red-tagging&quot;, can result in the arrest, detention or even death of the person targeted, and it exploded under Duterte.</p><p>A multi-agency task force set up by Duterte to end the insurgency frequently accused government critics of being communist sympathizers, without providing any evidence.</p><p>Hundreds of activists, journalists and lawyers were killed during Duterte&#x27;s term, many of them after being red-tagged, rights groups say.</p><p>Red-tagging has continued under Marcos, who has &quot;not said anything explicit&quot; against the practice, said Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch in the Philippines.</p><p>Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president and an alleged red-tagger, was recently appointed co-vice chair of the anti-communist task force.</p><div><strong>IS IT STILL DANGEROUS FOR JOURNALISTS?</strong></div><p>The Philippines remains one of the world&#x27;s most dangerous countries for journalists and scored below Mexico and Thailand on Reporters Without Borders&#x27; latest press freedom index.</p><p>Three journalists have been killed since Marcos took power, including a popular radio broadcaster in Manila that drew international concern and unusually quick action by authorities to find the culprits.</p><p>During his term, Duterte went after local broadcaster ABS-CBN and online news site Rappler over perceived slights and alleged &quot;fake&quot; news.</p><p>ABS-CBN lost its free-to-air license after Congress refused to renew its franchise, while Rappler and its co-founder Maria Ressa have been fighting charges of tax evasion and cyber libel.</p><p>Many journalists feared Marcos would adopt Duterte&#x27;s hostility towards them after he largely shunned mainstream media on the campaign trail.</p><p>Since taking office, however, he has been more open to answering questions from reporters, though one-on-one interviews are still rare.</p><p>Ressa, meanwhile, was cleared of tax evasion in January, her first acquittal since Duterte&#x27;s government began filing charges against her.</p><p>She still faces potential prison for a cyber libel conviction, while the future of Rappler, which she co-founded in 2012, remains uncertain.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ueMDN2KXx-E?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Marcos has presented himself as more moderate than Duterte, who threatened to kill people and repeatedly disparaged human rights.

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What's the state of Philippine human rights under Marcos Jr?

What's the state of Philippine human rights under Marcos Jr?

Cecil Morella,

Agence France-Presse

Published Jun 07, 2023 10:29 PM PHT

|

Updated Jun 24, 2023 02:46 PM PHT

Read More:

Ferdinand Marcos Jr

human rights

human rights activists

Rodrigo Duterte

drug war

Leila de Lima

International Criminal Court

red-tagging

journalists

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