At least 81 human rights violations in Marcos’ first 100 days — youth group

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) — There were at least 81 counts of human rights violations since the start of the term of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., ecumenical youth group Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) reported on Friday.

In a statement, SCMP said such “harrowing” reality under the new administration meant that it is a continuation of a “culture of violence and impunity made worse by the previous Duterte regime” that terrorizes activists and innocent individuals.

“These human rights violations highlight that the Marcos Jr.’s administration disregards human rights,” said SCMP national chairperson Kej Andres.

“As people rise up from high prices and worsening social problems, the government clamps down on the masses as the first family uses people’s taxes on parties, foreign trips, and other decadent activities," Andres pointed out. "Hence, Marcos Jr.’s rule puts Philippine society into a sinful situation.”

In its monitoring, SCMP said the first case was the arrest of three youth activists on June 30 after hanging a banner along Commonwealth Avenue.

The latest cases, on the other hand, were the police presence around the Iglesia Filipina Independiente National Cathedral during a workers’ forum and the mauling attack on radio blocktimer Flo Hervias in Iloilo, both happened on Friday.

The group said it recorded at least 13 killings by government troops across the country, including the death of nine-year-old Kyllene Casao, and Maximino Digno, a 60-year-old peasant who is a person with disability in Batangas. It noted that the cases were mostly veiled under fake encounters with the New People’s Army (NPA).

SCMP’s tally was collated through news articles, reports from human rights groups, and its own on-ground monitoring, it said. It included at least 20 cases of arrests of activists, peasants, and indigenous persons that were mostly illegal and under trumped-up cases, it added.

“These cases contradict the statement of the new CHR (Commission on Human Rights) Chairperson (Richard) Palpal-latoc in saying that the human rights situation is ‘fair’ and that the justice system is ‘working,’” Andres stressed.

Andres was talking about Palpal-latoc’s comment on the row between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the latter insisted to resume the investigation into the country’s drug war. 

Marcos has been criticized for being silent regarding the human rights situation in the country. He said he was not sorry for the atrocities committed during his father’s rule, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.