The Baguio City Council “approved on Monday the Human Rights Defenders Ordinance designed to shield activists from threats, defamation and harassment by law enforcement and government officials. Expected to be signed by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, it provides a 'redress mechanism' for the victims. Offenders must ‘rectify’ their statements or face penalties.” – Inquirer frontpage news item.
A timely local ordinance on Human Rights Month of December, indeed!
This is in fact a longed-for call by the Filipino people to the top leadership tandem of President Bongbong Marcos and his VP Sara Duterte, and the "honorable" gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives, to abolish the National Task Force to End the Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)!
This aspiration had been incessantly aired by concerned individuals, human rights defenders, civil society organizations (CSOs), and NGOs, when Sara’s father, Rodrigo Roa Duterte was president.
A Bloody Trail
People knew all along that from the time he was Davao city mayor, together with his then Police Chief Ronald "Bato" de la Rosa, they had heartlessly left a bloody trail of Extra Judicial Killings (EJKs).
And by the end of his term as president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte and his partners, Bato de la Rosa, Bong Go, and her daughter Sara, other colleagues, and his Davao Death Squad (DDS) PNP ground troops as well as the NTF-ELCAC officials, had caused more than 30,000 victims of EJKs and red-tagging.
Sadly, such a bloody trail of dead bodies and harassment of activists, human rights watch groups and even concerned individuals/groups helping the marginalized, have been pursued relentlessly by this administration of President Bongbong Marcos and his VP Sara Duterte.
Form of Harassment
Mayor Benjamin Magalong and his Baguio City Council have led the way with a human rights ordinance in aligning with the Supreme Court’s official public recognition of red-tagging as a form of harassment and intimidation.
The Filipino people are expecting that all the LGU mayors and their Councils will follow suit with their own respective human rights ordinances. Better yet, and most importantly, President Bongbong Marcos should abolish the notorious NTF-ELCAC right NOW.
Such a bold statesmanlike official action will truly save thousands of Filipino lives, to encourage patriotic citizens to feel safe in bringing their grievances to their public officials, and truly to promote the Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of the Press nationwide.
Hoping For Justice
Hopefully, too, soonest, the representatives of the people in the Senate and House of Representatives will come up with appropriate legislations to implement their inherent task, as part of the government bureaucracy, to protect and promote the human rights of all Filipinos, ALWAYS!
The Filipino people can then really expect soon, JUSTICE especially for the families of the thousands of EJK and Red-tagged victims, as well as the current victims of illegal arrests, tortures, illegal detentions, enforced disappearances, and other forms of injustices.
Such is the Filipino people’s HOPE this Christmas season, Jesus Christ’s birth month, the most celebrated merry "love" month of the Filipino people.
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