President Marcos has issued an administrative order (AO) creating the “Special Committee on Human Rights Coordination,” which Malacañang described as a “super body” tasked to champion constitutional freedoms.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin signed AO 22 last May 8. He leads the special committee with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla as co-chair. Serving as members are Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos, Jr.
Malacañang said their goal is to enhance mechanisms established by the government to promote and protect human rights in the Philippines. This is based on the United Nations for the Joint Program on Human Rights (UNJP), which will expire on July 31.
“It is imperative to sustain and enhance the accomplishments under the UNJP, which is set to expire on the 31st of July, through institutionalization of a robust multi-stakeholder process for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines,” President Marcos said in his AO.
The Philippines is among the nations that signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
This prompted the creation of the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) to comply with its obligations to international human rights groups. The PHRC is also tasked to formulate a National Human Rights Action Plan.
All government agencies involved in the special human rights committee are tasked to engage in capacity-building and technical cooperation in the areas of law enforcement, criminal justice, and policymaking in the Philippines.
National government agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations, and local government units and the private sector are also directed and urged, respectively, to render full support and assistance to the implementation of AO 22.
President Marcos’s new order comes on the heels of recent reports that some officers associated with the Bureau of Corrections were harassing the wives of political prisoners and other visitors of persons deprived of liberty (PDL) at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.
