Groups outline 12-point legislative agenda to uphold, protect human rights

By FRANCK DICK ROSETE
Bulatlat.com

CAGAYAN DE ORO — Civil society groups presented a 12-point human rights agenda which they believe candidates for the mid-term national elections should support.

“For candidates who will become elected officials in May, the agenda that will be laid out in this electoral forum is an invitation and a challenge so that you will become allies in upholding and protecting human rights,” Joel Saracho, board member of the Human Rights and People Empowerment Center (HRPEC), said in a program at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Monday, February 3.

The 17 groups who drafted the agenda believe that human rights should be at the “front and center of the 2025 elections” amid challenges in addressing human rights violations in the country, highlighting the lack of justice for victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) and enforced disappearances, among other violations in civil, political, economic, and social rights.

Read: House probe urged to include EJK victims in Duterte’s counterinsurgency

The recommendations include the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the repeal of the controversial Anti-Terror Law, the sponsorship of a bill that criminalizes red-tagging, and the call for the executive department to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Proposals on how to ensure and protect workers’ rights, the indigenous people’s right to self-determination, and people’s right to free education and health were also on the list, together with the courses of action to promote inclusivity and gender equality. They also made recommendations to ensure the provision of decent housing and livelihood.

The group also recommended the review of some laws to help farmers in order to boost the local agricultural economy, to have a balanced environment, and to promote human rights in the face of the climate emergency.

They enumerated steps to ensure government transparency and accountability, including the need for an efficient freedom of information policy and the institutionalization of a people’s council in every local government unit.

Former Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago vowed to continue the fight for human rights, standing in solidarity with mothers shouting for justice after losing their husbands, partners, and children who became EJK victims during the bloody drug war of former president Rodrigo Duterte. Elago is currently the first nominee of Gabriela Women’s Party.

“We will not stop if we do not achieve justice and accountability for the victims of human rights violations,” Elago said, expressing support for the agenda.

Human rights group Karapatan claimed that there are close to 30,000 drug-related killings under the Duterte administration. It also said in its term-ender report that there were 422 victims of extrajudicial killings and 574 frustrated extrajudicial killings under the former president’s counterinsurgency program.

Read: Karapatan slams Marcos Jr.’s UNSC bid, citing gross human rights violations and suppression of dissent

Former senator and Commission on Human Rights chairperson Leila de Lima, who is the first nominee of the multi-sectoral Mamamayang Liberal Party List, also assured that she would continue to fight for human rights, a fight, she described, that is close to her heart after her years in jail.

“I was imprisoned for almost seven years because a regime did not recognize that we all have the right to live with dignity and integrity,” de Lima said.

A total of 25 senatorial candidates and party list nominees endorsed the 12-point human rights legislative agenda. They promised to keep in mind the proposed measures that came from the Filipino people. (RTS, RVO)

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