News Roundup 03 June 2021
Jun 03, 2021 • 4 min Read
COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rise to 1,247,899 | PHILSTAR.COM – Local health authorities on Thursday reported 7,217 additional coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,247,899.
- Active cases: 55,790 or 4.5% of the total
- Recoveries: 3,483, pushing total to 1,170,752
- Deaths: 199, bringing total to 21,357
CHR says Duterte admin’s rights violations ‘incomparable’ to previous terms | PHILSTAR.COM – The Duterte government has seen more rights violations committed by police officers than past Philippine administrations so far, the Commission on Human Rights said Thursday. Speaking in an interview aired over ANC, lawyer Jacqueline de Guia, CHR spokesperson, said that while “no particular administration has been spared,” the rate and the scale of rights violations under Rodrigo Duterte is “incomparable.” This comes after Malacañang took back its earlier promise to open drug war documents to the Department of Justice after claiming that such documents were a matter of national security and thus confidential. “Never has there been a time where we were so overwhelmed with the number of cases we are handling right now,” she said, adding that the commission was investigating almost 3,300 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings to go with the killings of lawyers, journalists and activists. Asked if the chief executive himself played a role in the worsening human rights situation, De Guia said: “He’s the most influential official in the country. Words matter. We have repeatedly said that he is very influential to his constituents and to the government officials under him.” “We would want the highest-ranking official to be very circumspect in his language and to encourage accountability lest it spill over to other sectors as we see now, and to make sure the justice system is working not only for a select few but for everyone.” The government’s own figures acknowledge almost 8,000 deaths in official anti-drug operations, though rights groups both here and abroad say the death toll may be as high as 30,000. Malacañang’s retracted promise comes despite a Supreme Court ruling that holds that all records pertaining to deaths linked to the war on drugs are a matter of “grave public concern.”
Critics hit Duterte order limiting access to PNP drug war documents | INQUIRER.NET – President Rodrigo Duterte seems to be countermanding a transparent investigation of the thousands of killings in his brutal war on drugs by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Philippine National Police by stopping the full disclosure of all records pertaining to antidrug operations, human rights groups said on Tuesday. Invoking national security similar to the anti-insurgency campaign, the president said the government could not release all police records as they contained information about certain personalities that must be kept confidential. “We have records that those who have died, but who have derogatory records in our files, and may have references to certain people and what they do, we cannot divulge it to anybody but only to the military and to the police,” he said in his televised public address on Monday night. Duterte said that how a gunfight happened might be inquired into. “But if you say what prompted the police and the military to go into this kind of operation based on their reports and collated dossier, you cannot go into that,” he said. The president’s statements followed pronouncements by PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar that he would open drug war reports for scrutiny by the DOJ, whose investigation is intended to determine any liability in the deaths resulting from antinarcotics operations. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra had praised Eleazar’s decision as a “very significant milestone in the government’s efforts to exact accountability.” The drug war has been criticized for the overwhelming number of suspects killed for allegedly fighting back in what has been called “nanlaban” deaths.
Robredo happy to attend multiple virtual graduations amid pandemic | Manila Bulletin – Vice President Leni Robredo is looking at the “silver linings” of being in a pandemic after recording multiple graduation messages and speeches from the comforts of her office. “Pre-pandemic, I can only accept a few and, most of the time, I needed to travel long distances, fly, stay in hotels just to attend a graduation,” she said in a Facebook post Thursday, June 3. “Now, I can be in many all at the same time and do not have to spend for travel expenses. These are some of the silver linings in this time of great difficulty,” she added. The vice president shared her photos while recording messages and speeches for this year’s graduates since face-to-face graduation rites are still not allowed due to COVID-19. Robredo noted she has recorded 20 messages and 27 speeches for different universities and colleges. Last week, she was a guest speaker of an online public policy forum hosted by the students of the Filipino Society at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. She talked about the challenges of being an opposition leader and of being a woman holding a government top post like hers. She also gave insight about the maritime disputes in the West Philippine Sea.
