Passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 also raises fears for church groups and human rights organizations. For President Duterte, “terrorism is any form of dissent,” says lawyer Neri Colmenares.
The Anti-Terrorism Act is being used to “impinge on the exercise of free speech, thought, religious belief and association, as well as other civil and political rights,” notes the Unity Statement from international church groups. That document adds, “The worrisome heightening of human rights violations and intensifying curtailment of civil liberties are unduly facilitated by restrictions put upon democratic discourse, including legitimate assemblies to express grievances, in a civil space so severely shrunk.”
Swift Action Against Extrajudicial Killings Is Needed, Say Activists
Religious and human rights groups are urging the UN Human Rights Council to take swift action about the deteriorating situation in the Philippines. “Decisive and meaningful action…can help deter further and worse human rights violations,” says Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of the human rights alliance Karapatan. Palabay, who herself has been criminalized by the Filipino government, adds, “Postponing action or furthering inaction may mean immense impacts on the climate of impunity in the Philippines.”
Duterte’s six-year term ends in 2022, but opponents fear he won’t leave office quietly. During his administration, 13 members of Karapatan have been killed. Victims include the group’s former education director, Zara Alvarez, who was shot six times on her way home from buying dinner.
If the UN disregards the documented violations occurring in the Philippines, says Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch Asia, its “integrity and credibility” will be dealt “a severe blow.”
Churches and cathedrals also have been under attack in the Philippines. Last month, suicide bombings linked to the Islamic State killed 15 people and injured dozens more.
The Philippines is a predominantly Christian nation, with an estimated 86 percent of people identifying as Roman Catholic. Duterte, who claims he was sexually abused as a child by a priest, has called Catholic bishops “useless fools” and said they should be killed. He also called God “stupid” and said he “can’t accept” a religion based on the concept of original sin.
Next year marks 500 years since Christianity arrived in the Philippines—an occasion that Duterte has said he won’t celebrate. Catholic Bishop Pablo Virgilio David says the commemoration will focus on faith, not on Spanish rule. “What we will celebrate in 2021 is not colonialism but the Christian faith that the natives of these islands welcomed as a gift, albeit from people who were not necessarily motivated by the purest of motives,” he writes. “God can indeed write straight even with the most crooked lines.”
