The Commission on Human Rights on Friday slammed the “senseless killing” of human rights investigator Archad Ayao from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Lawyer-spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said the increasing number of killings “is a testament that violent rhetoric and vilification of human rights concepts is deadly.”
“This will only result to the already ongoing climate of fear and will weaken the works and influence of human rights defenders in the country who continue to challenge all forms of injustices and hold people in authority to account,” she said.
Ayao, a former broadcast journalist turned human rights advocate, was riding a habal-habal for hire when an unidentified gunman shot him to death in May in Cotabato City.
The habal-habal driver also sustained gunshots wounds on his head.
The CHR said threats to the public “will weaken the works and influence of human defenders… who continue to challenge all forms of injustices and hold people in authority to account.”
The Commission called on the government to dig deeper into Ayao’s death.
Meanwhile, the CHR called on the Philippine National Police to respect human dignity under any circumstance.
Lawyer-spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia reacted to closed-circuit television footage that went viral showing policemen beating up several drug suspects which she said was “another addition to the growing reports of torture and brutality involving the police force.”
De Guia said the PNP operations manual provides the procedures that ensure that rights of suspects, as well as detainees, are respected and these must be followed at all times.
“There is no excuse to circumvent the duty to respect and protect human rights especially by the very state agents that are mandated to protect and serve the people,” she said.
“As we are investigating this case, we are requesting once more the cooperation of the PNP,” she added.
“Denying us access to blotter goes against the principle of transparency for it is a public document. Those involved must face the full force of the law and preventive measures must be done to ensure no repetition,” she added.