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Start inoculating prisoners, rights group presses gov’t

A support group for political detainees pressed the government to start inoculating prisoners, citing the higher possibility of coronavirus outbreaks inside the country’s overcrowded and poorly-ventilated jail facilities.

“Kapatid presses the national government to release a clear schedule for the vaccination of all prisoners, including the 704 political prisoners, in the national deployment plan for COVID-19 vaccines because the congested prison system places them at significant higher risk for the disease,” Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim said.

The group Kapatid made the call after justice secretary Menardo Guevarra said that ordinary prisoners are not yet part of the priority list for the government’s vaccination activities against the increasingly contagious and deadly COVID-19.

Guevarra said that only elderly prisoners are eligible for early vaccination.

“[W]hile waiting for their turn to get vaccinated like the rest of the population, these [non-elderly] PDLs (persons deprived of liberty) will just have to follow minimum health protocols to reduce the risk of viral transmission,” Guevarra, Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Against COVID-19 member, said.

‘Mixed messaging’

Lim said Guevarra’s statement however contradicts an earlier assurance by the Department of Health (DOH) that “all persons deprived of liberty as determined by Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) are included under the Priority Eligible Group B-9.”

Kapatid asked DOH secretary and IATF Against COVID-19 chairperson Francisco Duque last March 2 to included all prisoners among the first to be vaccinated as part of the most “at-risk populations.”

DOH undersecretary and National Vaccine Operations Center chairperson Dr. Myrna Cabotaje told the rights group that prisoners are already identified for inclusion in the priority eligible population on the basis of stratifying the risks for contracting COVID-19 infection.

“So we quote to Secretary Guevarra the very words of the DOH in their reply to us: ‘Health is an absolute human right. No Filipino will be denied their right to get vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine. The national government assures you that every consenting Filipino will receive the appropriate COVID-19 vaccine, to protect the life and health of every citizen, including all Political Prisoners,’” she added

“Shouldn’t the DOJ and the whole national government be saying the same thing to everyone?” Lim asked.

Lim said it is ironic that the DOJ whose mandate includes the supervision of the BuCor should contradict the DOH statement and ignore the plight of over 215,000 prisoners compelled to live in subhuman conditions.

“This apparently may be yet another case of mismanagement from the top that results in mixed messaging,” Lim said.

 ‘Death traps’

Kapatid said extreme congestion inside the country’s prisons makes them “death traps” during the pandemic.

In November 2019, the BJMP reported that its 467 jails nationwide were at 534 percent of capacity as of March of that year while the BuCor said that the congestion rate in its 125 prisons was at 310 percent as of January 2019.

In October 2018, the Commission on Human Rights said “deplorable jail conditions” in the country are aggravated by the failure of the government, including police officers, to faithfully comply with even the minimum human rights standards and laws, such as the Anti-Torture Act (RA 9745). # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Mass killing of Filipino activists appalls United Nations

A few weeks after the Rodrigo Duterte government assured the international community of its commitment to uphold human rights, the United Nations (UN) said it is appalled by the series of mass killing of activists throughout the Philippines.

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani in Geneva, Switzerland said the international body is “appalled by the apparently arbitrary killing of nine activists in simultaneous police-military operations” across four provinces last Sunday, March 7.

WATCH: Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters the Office of the High Commissioner was “appalled” by the killing of nine human rights activists in the Philippines.

Shamdasani noted that the latest mass killing and arrest of activists, like in the December 30, 2020 massacre of nine Tumandok in Panay Island, was conducted at nighttime.

“We are deeply worried that these latest killings indicate an escalation in violence, intimidation and harassment and red tagging of human rights defenders,” she said.

Shamdasani added there is a history of human rights advocates of being red-tagged or being accused of being fronts for the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, an allegation unanimously denied by the families of the victims of the various massacres.

 “In our June 2020 report, the [UN] high commissioner (for human rights Michelle Bachelet) warned that such public labeling has proved to be extremely dangerous and she urged the protection of human rights defenders, journalists and others at risk,” Shamdasani said.

“In recent months, there has been dozens of activists and journalists who have been arrested, including on human rights day on December 2020,” referring to recently-freed Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem and six labor union organizers arrested with her.

Making his spokesperson a liar

The international body’s condemnation came merely two weeks after justice secretary Menardo Guevarra assured the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last February 24 the Duterte government had adopted measures “to minimize loss of lives during legitimate law enforcement operations.”

Guevarra added that the Philippines “strongly emphasizes that its legal and judiciary system and domestic accountability mechanisms are functioning as they should.”

Guevarra had been the designated spokesperson for the Philippine government at UNHRC sessions since late 2020 after combative statements by officials earlier failed to deflect criticisms of the Duterte government’s mass murder of suspected drug users, critics and other civilians.

At the 44th General Session of the UNHRC last June 2020, the international body severely criticized the Duterte government for its woeful human rights record.

In a 26-page report last June 4, the UNHRC said the Duterte government’s heavy-handed focus on countering national security threats and illegal drugs has resulted in serious human rights violations, including killings and arbitrary detentions, as well as the vilification of dissent.

The UN also condemned Duterte’s ill-defined and ominous language, “coupled with repeated verbal encouragement by the highest level of State officials to use lethal force, may have emboldened police to treat the circular as permission to kill.”

Duterte ignored the condemnation again when he issued shoot-to-kill and “ignore human rights” orders against alleged communists to state forces when he presided over a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict meeting at Cagayan de Oro City last Friday.

Families of the nine killed last Sunday vow the victims were civilians, however. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)