VARIOUS sectors in the Philippines have expressed alarm and indignation over Congress’ passage of a bill protecting human rights ‘defenders’ but which would have the result of giving a free pass for established fronts of terrorist groups like the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to solicit funding from abroad and its ‘peace consultants’ to freely roam around the country, smear the government and agitate for its violent overthrow without fear of arrest.
In a move that was only hailed by CPP congressmen, their fellow travelers in Congress and their supporters abroad, 200 congressmen approved the passage of HB 10576, last January 17, 2022.
Jointly authored by CPP defenders in Congress, the Makabayan Bloc congressmen (and suspected active CPP members)— Reps. Carlos Isagani Zarate, Arlene Brosas, Eufemia Cullamat, Ferdinand Gaite, Sarah Jane Elago and France Castro, it was also sponsored by Liberal Party congressman, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, Rep. Jose Christopher ‘Kit’ Belmonte, 6th district, Quezon City, and several other lawmakers who are clueless enough to affixed their signatures in the bill.
Lagman is a brother of slain CPP-NPA leader, Filemon ‘Popoy’ Lagman who was murdered by his own comrades on February 8, 2001. Belmonte, on the other hand, is known to be a previous card-carrying CPP member, especially during his student days at the University of the Philippines, as affirmed by Anak Kalusugan Partylist representative and former student leader, Mike Defensor.
Atty. Marlon Bosantog, nominee of the IPeace Epanaw Partylist that represents the interest of the country’s indigenous people (IPs), described HB 10576 as a bill “founded on lies.”
“The primary assertion made to justify this bill are (that) thousands of human rights workers (were) killed and murdered in cold blood by the State (Philippine government).
“Yet, not a single case was proved in the sala of evidence (court) that said (the) deaths were brought about by State repression, none,” Bosantog stressed.
“If approved, the bill will then install CPP-NPA-NDF groups like KARAPATAN as overseer of human rights abuses in the country,” Bosantog said, warning further that aside from the CPP, “even the Abu Sayyaf (ASG), if it so desires, can be a human rights defender.”
Parents and relatives of the victims of CPP deceptive recruitment that targets the youth sector, also decried Congress’ passage of HB 10576.
“As parents of the children who were victimized by the front organizations of the CTG (communist terrorist groups), are we not more qualified to be the representatives of human rights rather than those deceitful groups,” asked the ‘Hands Off Our Children’ (HOOC) movement in a statement last January 20, 2022.
Specifically, Section 7 of HB 10576, if approved into law, would freely allow CPP-created ‘human rights groups’ like Karapatan, the “right to solicit, receive and utilize resources, from
domestic and international organizations, including governmental, intergovernmental, philanthropic and private sources” for purportedly for the “express purpose of promoting and striving for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The passage of a ‘human rights defenders’ law in the Philippines is one of the major campaigns of CPP front groups before the international community.
And with more than 50 years behind it in using human rights issues in the Philippines, the CPP has become an expert in manufacturing human rights issues that generated millions of dollars in foreign funding and support for its violent agenda while at the same time continuously blackening the country’s image abroad.
However, the CPP’s foreign funding drive is now partly being addressed by the government with the enactment of RA 10168 (Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012) and, RA 11479 (Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020).
Section 11 of HB 10576, on the other hand, would make it illegal for anyone to ‘red-tag’ CPP front groups and personalities in the guise of protecting them from “any act of false labeling or name calling, malicious and fabricated accusations against any offense, or any other kind of vilification.”
Presidential communications undersecretary, Lorraine Marie Badoy, spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), in a separate statement, said Congress’ approval of HB 10576 could “open the floodgates of abuse and torment on our people by terrorists.”
“It will make the Anti-Terrorism Law (RA 11479) that was recently declared constitutional by the Supreme Court ineffective and toothless,” Badoy pointed out.
“For starters, the authors of this bill are urban operatives of the CPP-NPA-NDF —members of the sarcastically named Makabayan Bloc—who have worn the mask of human rights defenders while at the same time enabling the worst human rights offenses against our people and providing cover to some of the worst offenders of human rights in our country, the NPA,” Badoy declared.
“It is no wonder then that they have penned this cynical bill that gives protection to their comrades and that will tie the hands of the government and the constitutionally mandated protectors of our country, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, as they go about defending our people from terrorists.
“HB 10576) will make fronts of the CPP-NPA-NDF like KARAPATAN, and the NUPL (National Union of People’s Lawyers), ‘watchdogs’ of human rights in our country,” Badoy said.
“How then can government protect the Filipino people from terrorism if we cannot stop terrorism financing or take off masks of terrorists who pretend to be ‘human rights defenders,’” she asked further.
Echoing the sentiments of the communities in the Visayas, Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, spokesperson for the Western Visayas Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF6-ELCAC) on January 21, 2022, called on the remaining “well-meaning” members of Congress to reject HB 10576.
“It is an affront and an insult to all of us government workers and public servants who have worked for peace adapting the whole of nation approach and good governance under the NTF-ELCAC,” Gonzales said.
He added that the country has more than enough laws and statutes protecting citizens’ civil and political rights.
“The campaign for good governance has gained the trust of our people and has effectively addressed the root causes of the communist terrorist insurgency,” he said.
Gonzales added the title of the bills is a “misnomer” since it presents itself as a law for HR defenders but the contents are “aimed at eroding and destroying the lawful structures that ensure that rights of the people are defended, preserved and upheld.” (with additional reports courtesy of the Philippine News Agency).