Senator Francis Escudero on Thursday urged Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairman Chito Gascon to go all out in airing his concerns on human rights violations here in the Philippines first before venting them out to the international community.

Escudero made this call after the government of the Philippines presented last May 8 the state of human rights in the country and defended President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs before the United Nations (UN) during its Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, Switzerland.

But the CHR, one of the staunchest critics of the Duterte administration’s drug war, was not part of the delegation as it is a dependent office from the Executive branch. Gascon and other members only attended to monitor the proceedings.

Escudero said that it seemed like the usually quiet Gascon spoke up more while abroad compared to when he was in his own country.

“Si Chairperson Gascon, hindi naman siya gaano nagsasalita dito tapos sa ibang bansa pa siya magsasalita at magrereklamo. Sana dito siya maging mas aktibista at hindi yung parang naglalaba o naghuhugas tayo ng maruming damit sa publiko – sa international community pa man din,” Escudero said in a Kapihan press conference. (“Chairperson Gascon doesn’t usually speak up here but in another country, he speaks up and complains. He should be more of an activist here and not make it seem like he’s washing our dirty laundry in public – to the international community.”)

“Sana kung ano man ang problema ni Chairperson Gascon, dito niya mismo sabihin. At sana mas maingay siya dito kaysa sa ibang bansa (I hope that whatever Chairperson Gascon’s problem is, he airs them here. And I hope he would make more noise here than in another country),” he added.

Escudero pointed out that Gascon’s basis for claiming that there were state-sponsored killings in the country were the speeches of President Duterte where he encouraged law enforcement officers to kill drug users and pushers who fought back.

“Ang basehan naman talaga ni Chairperson Gascon ng CHR, kung bakit state-sponsored ito ay yung pananalita o salitang na binibitiwan ni Pangulong Duterte (The only basis of Chairperson Gascon of CHR why the killings are state-sponsored is the manner of speaking and the words used by President Duterte),” Escudero said.

The senator said that killings during the previous administration under President Benigno Aquino III and the current administration has “practically the same” numbers.

“…Yung datos kung titingnan ninyo, yung dami at bilang ng mga pinapatay ay halos nandun pa rin lang sa bilang katulad sa mga nagdaang administrasyon (The number of people killed in this administration is practically the same from the previous administration),” he added.

The only difference was, Escudero stressed, what that President Duterte was “tough-talking.”

“Ang pagkakaiba lang una na inanunsyo yung giyera sa droga at pangalawa yung pananalita ni Pres. Duterte na patayin to, patayin yan. Yun lamang ang pagkakaiba (The only difference is that the drug war was announced and the manner of speaking of Pres. Duterte when he says ‘kill this, kill that’),” Escudero said.

“But that by itself should not make it state-sponsored. A tough-talking President does not automatically make him a human rights violator unless proof show that indeed he is involved directly in an such orders to kill extra judicially any suspect or an person,” he added.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group has adopted the recommendations formulated during the examination of the Philippines’ human rights record last week, including accepting without prior condition, the request for a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Dr. Agnes Callamard.

The delegations who urged the Philippines to extend an invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions for an official visit in line with UN terms of reference without any further delay include Peru, Latvia, France Germany, Ghana, Hungary and Lavia.

The UPR Working Group likewise called on the Philippine government to make public the findings and implement the recommendations of the Sub-committee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment arising from its visit to the country in 2015.

Source:

by PNA and Roy C. Mabasa

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]