Updated: May 24, 2017 04:19 AM GMT
A protester holds up a placard calling for a stop to killings and an end to impunity during a protest march in Manila in April. (Photo by Vincent Go)
The international community looks upon the Philippines with deeply concerned eyes. Human rights issues include extrajudicial killings, the proposed restoration of capital punishment and lowering of the age of criminal responsibility, and the recently discovered secret detention cells for illegal drug peddlers.
Earlier this month, the Philippines was subjected to international scrutiny under the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations in Geneva. The UPR is a peer review mechanism of the human rights performance of all 193 U.N. member states.
Now, more than ever, a review of the situation in the Philippines is needed, despite the official Philippine delegation painting a beautiful picture of the country as a staunch human rights promoter.
"There are a lot of facts that need to be clarified and put in proper context so our friends in the United Nations and the international community understand the extent of the problems of corruption and illegal drugs," said Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, the incoming Foreign Affairs chief.
The senator emphasized "Filipino spirituality" in his report to the U.N. human rights body. "Filipinos are a very spiritual people. Regardless of our personal spiritual beliefs, we believe that man was created in the image of God and that there can be no compromise on human rights and dignity of human life," he said.
The opening statement was, however, followed by an absolute denial that a spate of drug-related killings in the country is part of a government policy. The senator insisted that the killings were not state sponsored.
Boasting that President Rodrigo Duterte himself does not tolerate state-sponsored killings, Cayetano presented a video of the president urging local law enforcement officials "to detain drug syndicates and kill them if they threatened the lives of police officers."
As the Philippine report was presented inside the Palace of Nations, some 50 Duterte supporters from France waved the Philippine flag and sang praises for Duterte. Human rights activists also staged their own "public event" in front of the Palais des Nations.
Alarmed by the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines, some 95 states registered to speak during the interactive dialogue. In their own "diplomatese," 50 states expressed "deep concern" over the killings, and called for investigations and accountability.
Several countries called on the Philippines not to restore the death penalty or to reduce the age of criminal responsibility for minors. At least 20 states reminded the Philippines of it being party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which prohibits any state party from restoring capital punishment.
Equally important allied concerns included enforced disappearances, torture, threats to human rights defenders, and economic, social, and cultural rights.
At least nine states recommended the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, to which the Philippines readily stated its reservation in doing so because "all mechanisms are in place, being enhanced and functioning."
The Philippine delegation summed up its human rights performance in six points:
Compiling a list on human rights goals is one thing. But how can the predominantly Catholic Philippines, with a people of deep spiritually as claimed by Senator Cayetano, unscrupulously defend its war on drugs and deny the systematic and massive extrajudicial killings?
Mary Aileen Bacalso is secretary-general of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. For her commitment to human rights, the government of Argentina awarded her the Emilio Mignone International Human Rights Prize in 2013.