Our Political Responsibility for Human Rights in the Philippines

This past week, the U.S. State Department approved an arms sale to the Philippines worth 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. The approval comes at a time when community organizations and legislators alike are calling to account for military aid to the Philippines.

On Monday, June 14th, Rep Susan Wild (D-PA) announced the Philippines Human Rights Act. This act, co-sponsored by 11 other representatives, was introduced in response to human rights violations during the Duterte regime and would suspend military aid to the Philippines until basic human rights measures are upheld.

This act is about accountability for human rights abuses, but it’s also about money. Our money, the money of the taxpayers being used for nefarious means.

The Trump administration was in allegiance with Duterte’s regime and supported corporate and military partnerships that do not allow the space of Philippines citizens to have any input into the governing process. Duterte’s regime used appropriation funds to 1) take land from indigenous communities for oil extraction, 2) use drones for so-called “insurgency” on indigenous farmlands, and 3) environmental degradation of key food supplying regions; among other human rights abuses. While President Biden has preached human rights at the center of its international policy, the recently approved arm sale of 2.5 billion seems to indicate otherwise.

Meanwhile, the international human rights community has long stood with the people of the Philippines in our efforts to hold Rodrigo Duterte accountable for crimes against humanity, and others.

In 2018, the nation of the Philippines withdrew from the International Criminal Court (ICC) — led by President Rodrigo Duterte when a preliminary probe started on the “drug war”. In 2020, Duterte signed the Anti-Terrorism Act — a law that Amnesty International has called “yet another setback for human rights.” The law is aimed at expanding the government’s ability to target political opponents and activists. It allows suspects to be detained by the police or military without charges for as long as 24 days and placed under surveillance for up to 90 days.

In 2019 — I previously reported that, according to Chew (2019), “in 2018, on top of the above, the U.S. sold the Philippine police and military over $63 million worth of arms. It also donated 2,253 machine guns, over 5 million rounds of ammunition, surveillance equipment, and other weapons. Military aid totaled at least $193.5 million last year, not including arms sales, and donated equipment of unreported worth. At least $145.6 million is already pledged for 2019.”

According to the BBC, “The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has called for a full investigation into suspected crimes against humanity during a deadly drugs crackdown directed by the government of the Philippines.”

This announcement from the ICC comes after the Press Conference where Rep. Susan Wild (PA) announced The Philippines Human Rights Act.

Human rights violations are many, across the globe, the institutions that are sanctioned to hold nation-states and their leaders accountable for the treatment of others have stepped up.

There are generational impacts of colonization that many of us don’t realize when we think of our own lives, let alone the lives and realities of people in a country we can’t identify.

With a brief moment of Japanese occupation, the islands of the Philippines were consistently occupied by the United States government until after the Second World War when the U.S. granted them independence. The Tyding-McDuffie Act in 1934 set the Philippines on track for independence and also put a cap on immigration to 50 people per year to the mainland. Currently, there are more than 2 million Filipinos in the United States.

Filipinos in the U.S. are asking for change. Yves Nibungco of the Malaya Movement National Secretariat recently stated “We should be punishing, not bankrolling, human rights violators and tyrants like Duterte. We need immediate action from the U.S. Congress to pass the PHRA now.” The Malaya Movement is one of several organizations pushing for the bill, including the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines and Kabataan Alliance.

Advocacy for the Philippine Human Rights Act is moving alongside Investigate PH, a project of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines whose first report recently concluded that “Available mechanisms for civilians to hold police and military accountable are failing,” claiming that The majority of extrajudicial killings, torture, disappearances, and unjust detentions do not result in prosecution, much less conviction.”

Investigate PH further substantiates the June 2020 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report that is highly critical of the Duterte administration.

While we offer aid to many countries around the world, we need to have a sharper eye on how it’s being used. Our government’s inability to hold leaders accountable for human rights violations and while continuing to use our tax dollars to fund it not only sends the wrong message, it perpetuates an idea that other people’s lives do not matter as much as our own.

According to the Philippines Human Rights Act, introduced in 2020), the following incidents were cited (among others):

• Government agencies of the Philippines report 4,948 suspected drug users and dealers, including 60 children, died during police operations from July 1, 2016, to September 30, 2018, and according to Human Rights Watch, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has reported 22,983 deaths to remain classified as “homicides under investigation” since the Drug War began.
• As of April 2020, the Alliance for Advancement of People’s Rights (“Karapatan”) has documented 308 extrajudicial political killings, 439 victims of attempted politically motivated killings, 214 victims of torture, around 2,500 victims of illegal arrests, over 100,000 victims of threats and harassments, and nearly half a million internal refugees under the Duterte administration.
• More than 16 mayors and vice mayors have been killed since President Duterte took office, and Duterte has personally spoken blatantly in press conferences advocating for the killing of Catholic bishops during a period where three Catholic priests were assassinated.

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Here in the U.S., we are fighting for the soul of our democracy, in more ways than one. On the international stage and domestically, our representatives should take a stand against human rights abuses and violations.

What we hold others accountable to, we should also be willing to fall in line — should we not?

The Philippines Human Rights Act Specifically, the Philippines must meet the following conditions to lift restrictions set by the bill:

1. Investigating and prosecuting members of the military and police forces who are credibly found to have violated human rights;
2. Withdrawing the military from domestic policy;
3. Establishing protections of the rights of trade unionists, journalists, human rights defenders, indigenous persons, small-farmers, LGBTI activists, religious and faith leaders, and critics of the government;
4. Taking steps to guarantee a judicial system that is capable of investigating, prosecuting, and bringing to justice members of the police and military who have committed human rights abuses; and
5. Fully complying with any and all audits or investigations regarding the improper use of security aid.

To learn more about the Philippines Human Rights Act click here.

To learn more about Investigate PH click here.