We, the organisations named below, make this statement to express our serious alarm about the widespread arbitrary arrests of children taking place throughout the Philippines under the ‘Oplan Tambay’ project of the Philippine government.
We note that President Duterte issued a directive that children found loitering be arrested for their protection, even if they have not committed any crime.(1) We further note that in the execution of Oplan Tambay in Cebu Province, minors violating curfew ordinances have been the largest group arrested.(2) We note that in the City of Manila, there is a drive to achieve ‘zero street children’ which is leading to large numbers of children being arbitrarily removed from public spaces.(3)
A local legal research and policy advocacy group working for the protection of indigenous peoples and local communities urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to reconsider funding authoritarian regimes who do not tolerate civil-society groups, noting that some of the massive infrastructure projects funded by the multilateral lender have historically impacted on the lives of indigenous and poor upland communities.
Legal Right and Natural Resources Center/Friends of the Earth Philippines Executive Director Norly Grace Mercado also stated the need for a meaningful consultation between the civil-society groups, specifically the marginalized and the ADB.
“Also in our analysis, we said that transportation and infrastructure have been directed in massive superhighways ports and airports. [Such] megastructures sometimes span several regions [that] cut across key biodiversity areas and culturally important heritage sites or indigenous territories and ancestral domain,” she said, adding that the ADB had also admitted that around half of the total number of public-sector loans projects funded by the bank inflicted involuntary displacement of communities.
The ADB, Mercado added, also failed to consider among its proposed strategic priorities one important worsening trend in the region, which is shrinking democratic space for civil-society organizations and communities.
“This is evident in the growing incidence of human-rights violations, which results to chilling effect in terms of communities in civil-society groups,” she said.
Mercado also urged the ADB not to only focus on infrastructure but, more important, on governance and in pushing for the environmental and social safeguards, which will give way to ensure a sustainable and inclusive growth that will consider social justice and human rights.
The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) is one with the working class in commemorating Labor Day. We add our voices in solidarity with the toiling masses specifically in demanding for the end of contractualization in the country and the respect, protection and fulfilment of workers’ rights.
The Duterte administration’s failure to end contractualization after almost two years in power, reveals even more its inability to heed the sentiments of the workers, to protect their rights and promote their interests. Its pronouncements have been mere rhetoric, devoid of sincerity and substance. Its commitment to advancing the right to decent work and to just and favourable working conditions remains to be empty promises as illustrated by the national government’s rejection of labour –related recommendations during the 3rd cycle of the Universal Period Review in 2017. These include its refusal and/or lack of political will to end contractualization, implement a national minimum wage, address gender wage gap, and sexual harassment of women in the workplace.
Call for Clarity to End Confusion Regarding the Kuwait Deployment Ban
“The ban stays permanently. There will be no more recruitment for especially domestic helpers. No more,” Duterte told reporters on Sunday in Davao.
“I would like to address to their patriotism: come home. No matter how poor we are, we will survive. The economy is doing good and we are short of our workers,” he said.
The announcement made by President Duterte that the temporary ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait is now permanent has raised the anxieties of many migrant workers about their livelihoods, families and futures.
Statement on the ICC’s Preliminary Examination of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte on EJK
The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) welcomes the announcement of the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor that it had begun an initial inquiry into allegations against President Rodrigo Duterte that he is directly responsible for over thousands of extrajudicial killings under his war on drugs which may constitute as crimes against humanity.
It provides a glimmer of hope to the families of victims at a time when the public is at a loss and when rule of law seems inexistent. For the victims to be heard is more than a consolation, it shows that they are not alone.
