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KINASTIGO ng human rights defenders si Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri sa pagmamangmaangan sa patuloy na nagaganap na paglabag sa karapatang pantao at kawalan ng hustisya at pananagutan sa Filipinas.
Ayon sa Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch, ang desentonadong tugon ni Zubiri sa tanong ng media hinggil sa human rights situation sa bansa ay nagpapakita ng kanyang pagiging manhid at tahasang pagbabalewala sa mga biktima ng human rights violations, extrajudicial killings at sa kanilang mga pamilya.
“Senator Zubiri was way out of tune in his response to media questions about damning international observations on the human rights situation in the Philippines. If the issue of extrajudicial killings is to be regarded as ‘lumang tugtugin’ at all, it is because the killings have been going on for so long,” anang grupo.
Anila, mali si Zubiri nang gawing halimbawa ang kaso ng pagpatay sa beteranong broadcast journalist na si Percival mabasa a.k.a. Percy Lapid para igiit ang kanyang punto gayong hindi pa ito nalulutas.
“Senator Zubiri is wrong in citing the Percy Lapid case in trying to prove his point. Lapid’s brutal murder has not yet been solved. Allegations of who the mastermind/s is/are, the presentation of an alleged gunman, the mysterious death of an alleged middleman who was in prison, and bickering among government officials is not—by any stretch of the imagination—“case closed” or justice,” sabi ng grupo.
Naniniwala ang Philippine UPR Watch na ang Philippine media ay laging nakahandang iulat ang magagandang balita tungkol sa Filipinas ngunit hindi kailangan idikta sa kanila.
“Ngunit kapag ang kapwa taga-media ay pinapaslang habang lantaran ang kahirapan ng mamamayan, mali na isisi sa kanila na nagkakaroon ng negatibong imahen ang pamahalaan dahil sa kanilang pagbabalita.
“The killing of a broadcaster, the second within the first 100 days of the Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., government, shows that the Philippine media and Filipinos in general are not free. Not when their rights and freedoms are as easily snuffed out as Percy Lapid’s,” giit ng Philippine UPR Watch.
“We wish to tell the Senate President, ang kawalang-hustisya sa Filipinas ay hindi lumang tugtugin. It is a brutal reality in the Philippines, as bloody under the current Marcos Jr., administration as it was during the Rodrigo Duterte regime. Hindi ito imbento ng UN experts, kitang kita ito sa araw-araw na buhay ng mamamayang Filipino, lalo (na) ng mga biktima at kanilang pamilya,” dagdag ng grupo.
Tila hinihikayat, anila, ni Zubiri ang publiko na kalimutan ang nakaraan at kasalukuyang kalupitan at realidad.
Hindi anila maitatago ang katotohanan na libo-libo ang pinatay sa drug war at counterinsurgency programs sa nakalipas na rehimen at ang kasalukuyang administraysong Marcos Jr., ay patuloy na ipinagkakait sa kanila ang hustisya.
“Where are the thousands of successful prosecutions and final convictions for such violations? Where is the current government’s resolve and will to go after perpetrators in government, among the police, military, and top officials including former President Duterte? What policy shifts have deterred perpetrators of violations from continuing these acts? NONE.”
Kung gusto anila ni Zubiri tungkol sa Filipinas, dapat niyang himukin ang administrasyon na itigil ang patayan at panagutin ang mga maysala upang makamit ang inaasam na hustisya para sa mga biktima.
“The 18-member UN Human Rights Committee has clearly looked at the facts, after years of the Philippine government’s decade-long delay of being subjected to such a review. They’ve read the Philippine government’s report and asked questions, poked at the answers of DOJ Sec. Jesus Crispin Remulla and the rest of the government delegation, and did their due diligence in studying the facts on the human rights situation in the country and reports of civil society. No amount of whining by Philippine government officials can unsettle their concluding observations.”
Kasalukuyang nasa Geneva, Switzerland ang mga delegado ng Philippine UPR Watch upang lumahok sa talakayan kaugnay sa estado ng human rights sa Filipinas at maging testigo sa report ng United Nations Human Rights Commission na nagpapatuloy ang mga paglabag sa bansa.
