MALACAÑANG on Friday accused two Filipina UN special rapporteurs of being partisan and trying to put the Duterte administration in a bad light after they called out authorities against the “massive” impact of military operations on the human rights of the Lumad or the indigenous people in Mindanao.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque accused Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on rights of indigenous peoples, and Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, Special Rapporteur on internally displaced peoples of using their position to “embarrass” the Duterte administration before the international community.
“The fact that they did it so publicly could only have been because they intended to embarass the Philippine government in the international community. So I appeal to these two Filipinos who…are special rapporteurs… not to use their post for the purpose of embarrassing the Duterte administration,” Duterte’s spokesman said.
Roque stressed the two special rapporteurs should have documented the cases of alleged rights abuses against the lumads, and brought these cases “to the proper authorities” instead of making a public statement to embarass the administration.
“Now as Filipinos, the special rapporteurs should have documented the cases of alleged targeting of lumads and brought these cases to the proper authorities, to the police and the prosecutor for preliminary investigation so that the proper information could be filed in court,” he said.
Roque, who until recently a human rights advocate, said the call of the UN rapporteurs was prejudiced.
“Both special rapporteurs should be more circumspect on their statements given that they were elected to their post upon the BS, the former administration (sic),” he claimed.
“And that their observations were made so publicly as they were appeared to be very partisan.”
Tauli-Corpuz and Jimenez-Damary, in a statement Thursday from Geneva, warned that the militarization of Mindanao was having a massive and potentially irreversible impact on the human rights of some of the island’s indigenous lumad communities.
The Filipina UN rapporteurs expressed concern over the safety of lumads threatened by bombings and military attacks, amid reports suggesting 2,500 lumads had been displaced since October, during the implementation of martial law in Mindanao.
They also expressed alarm that lumad farmers had allegedly been killed by alleged state forces last Dec. 3 in Barangay Ned in the province of South Cotabato.
They also stressed the government “must ensure that military personnel do not engage in violations of the human rights of indigenous peoples.”
This is not the first time that UN rapporteurs had called out the government amid the situation of the lumads.
In 2015, Corpuz and Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, urged authorities to launch an investigation into the killings of three human rights defenders in Surigao del Sur.
At that time, the experts’ call was endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns.