The committee will fall under the Presidential Human Rights Committee and is meant to replace the structures established by a United Nations Joint Programme, which focused on building capacity and technical cooperation on human rights reforms, after it ends on July 21.
Marcos Jnr’s executive secretary, essentially the president’s chief of staff, will co-chair the committee alongside the justice secretary, with the secretaries of foreign affairs, interior, and local governments serving as members.
During Duterte’s term, the strongman made international headlines for his administration’s bloody war on drugs that killed more than 12,000 Filipinos, mostly poor city dwellers, according to estimates from human rights groups.
Critics say Marcos Jnr’s new human rights committee lacks substance and have called it an attempt to conceal the ongoing human rights violations occurring under his administration and those that took place while his father, Ferdinand Marcos Snr, ruled the country.
Marcos Jnr has repeatedly refused to apologise for the abuses that took place during his father’s 21-year martial law regime – including rampant corruption and the targeting of political opponents, student activists and journalists – dismissing the issue as “a personal matter for the Marcos family” and “[not] a duty for a president to be involved” at a lunch with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines in April.
03:51
‘It makes my blood boil’: torture victims denounce Marcos family before Philippines election
‘It makes my blood boil’: torture victims denounce Marcos family before Philippines election
Drug-related killings have also persisted under Marcos Jnr’s administration – 621 deaths have been recorded since he took office, 42 per cent of which have been committed by state agents during anti-illegal drug operations, according to a study from the University of the Philippines.
“What I’ve observed is [Marcos Jnr] is reaping some accolades in terms of his positions on issues like environmentalism or human rights. But all of these remain motherhood statements, and it’s very hard to see them being implemented on the ground,” Athena Charanne Presto, a sociologist from the University of the Philippines, told This Week in Asia.
Human rights organisation Karapatan said that the new committee was created “in a desperate attempt to window-dress the grave human rights situation in the country”.
Carlos Conde, senior researcher at the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said Marcos’ human rights ‘super body’ may sound good on paper, but it is likely to have little authority to address ongoing human rights abuses in the country.
“The human rights ‘super body’ might impress some foreign observers, but what would impress people in the Philippines would be rescinding the ‘war on drugs’, ending the targeting of activists through often deadly ‘red-tagging’, and fairly prosecuting government officials implicated in serious rights violations,” Conde said.
He added that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), an independent body created under the country’s constitution to investigate human rights abuses, is “best positioned” to perform the special committee’s functions.
“If Marcos was serious about improving human rights protections and accountability for abuses, he would seek an expanded role for the [human rights commission], including by ensuring they were part of the new special committee,” he said.
Deinla from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers called the timing of Marcos Jnr’s announcement strategic, as the UN programme with Manila is ending in July.
We must challenge the narrative being peddled by the government or its claims of demonstrating its commitment to human rights
“This will undoubtedly be highlighted by the government as part of their campaign for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council and for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2027-2028 term,” he said.
Deinla added that Marcos Jnr’s committee will be unable to sustain the UN programme’s initiatives as long as laws and policies that enable abuses continue to be enforced, such as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which human rights advocates have criticised for its vague definition of terrorism that has allowed it to be weaponised against government critics.
“We must challenge the narrative being peddled by the government or its claims of demonstrating its commitment to human rights,” Deinla added.
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Philippine drug war victims forced out of graves as leases expire
Philippine drug war victims forced out of graves as leases expire
Despite human rights advocates’ misgivings, the CHR said that the new committee allowed the government to be more focused on implementing efforts that “actively promote developments on the human rights situation in the Philippines”.
“Through this coordinating body, we aim to see increased prosecution of cases related to the war on drugs and enforced disappearances, as well as the adoption of a comprehensive human rights-based approach in various government responses, particularly in counterterrorism efforts, addressing red-tagging, and safeguarding freedom of expression,” CHR chairman Richard Palpal-latoc said.