Remarks of

Undersecretary Severo S. Catura

Executive Director,

Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat (PHRCS)

Virtual Briefing for the Diplomatic Corps on the Progress of the Government’s Commitments under the UN Joint Program on Human Rights (UNJP)

17 August 2022, 3:30-5:00 pm (Manila time)

Secretary Manalo, Secretary Remulla, Excellencies, Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic Corps, colleagues in the Philippine government

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over the years, my office has often been mistaken for our independent national human rights institution, the Commission on Human Rights. While said commission has a mandate to monitor our entire bureaucracy, my office is specifically focused on the Executive department, making sure that bodies under it comply with human rights obligations pursuant to domestic laws and international human rights law.

My office is directly under the Office of the President, and the fact that our chairperson is no less than the Executive Secretary to the President, and I, as the head of its Secretariat, hold the rank of a vice minister attest to the seriousness that the State, specifically the Executive department, puts premium not only to its human rights obligations, but more importantly to human rights as a pillar of effective governance.

This afternoon, I will briefly add a bit more to what has already be presented by our good Secretaries, specific to the State’s reportorial commitments in the context of gathering, vetting and sharing accurate information with monitoring bodies; how the same information manifests the State’s respect for rights in the execution of relevant programs; and finally, how an enabling civic space flourishes in the Philippines and has driven State actions to address key social issues and problems.

A key function of my office is to oversee, coordinate, and monitor the implementation of the State’s international human rights obligations, being a State party to eight (8) core human rights conventions and their protocols. Secretary Manalo has cited a number of revalidas or constructive dialogues happening in the latter part of this year in fulfilment of the State’s compliance reporting obligations. Our office, in partnership with the DFA, is on top of preparations for these engagements.

But reporting is not confined to this system alone. We have introduced a novel mode in engaging with UN Special Procedures Mandate Holders on the side of sessions of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), now considered by many UN Special Rapporteurs (SRs) whom we have engaged as a best practice coming out of the Philippines. This involve Executive-type one-on-one sessions on key issues that are of particular interest to UNSRs at a given time. From 2019 to 2021 alone, the Philippines has had 31 engagements with UNSRs in this manner. And it was through this process that we were able to agree on country visits of two UNSRs.

In complying with its reporting obligations, such as through the revalidas and the UPR, accurate information-sharing is crucial.

It is for this reason that the Philippines has agreed to pilot, along with Malaysia and with the help of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a digital tracking tool called the National Recommendations Tracking Database for the gathering, vetting, consolidating, and updating of all information on State human rights compliance. The revalidas and the UPR will be opportunities to test drive this database.

This database system is at the core of the NMIRF, or the National Mechanism for Implementation, Reporting and Follow-Up, a major deliverable of the UNJP Technical Working Group. My office co-chairs the NMIRF with the OHCHR, and its development is a product of a consultative process involving other government agencies, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), CSOs, and the OHCHR.

As sharing of accurate information is crucial in human rights reporting, our national police, through its human rights office which has presence in every police station – from the national down to the communities – has a program called HuRAISE, short for Human Rights Recording, Analysis, Information System, and Enforcement, for the collection of data on police personnel involved in human rights violations. The results of this program shall inform policies for continuing police reform. The UNJP has included this program as one of its key components.

Over and above this program lies the police human rights affairs offices’ continuing promotion of rights-based policing for its 227,000-strong police force. Between 2020 and June 2022, nearly 200 training and refresher workshops on various human rights and related subjects were conducted for police nationwide.

Accurate information -sharing is especially essential when we come across human rights issues that are often deemed contentious – not for lack of information, but for lack of appreciation of the information that we provide. One such issue concerns the Philippines’ anti-illegal drug campaign.

Contrary to allegations that the campaign is conducted roughshod, there is rationale in the Philippines’ anti-illegal drugs strategy called Rehabinasyon. Institutionalized in 2018, Rehabinasyon is a comprehensive approach to fight the scourge of illegal drugs encompassing enforcement, justice, rehabilitation, reintegration and advocacy.

To date, 63 accredited treatment and rehabilitation facilities have been set up, 58 of which are residential and 5 are out-patient facilities. Some 2,708 admissions were recorded in all these facilities.

Compared to cases of the previous years, there was a 14% increase in admission to these facilities, attributed to the resumption of operation of the rehabilitation centers and the willingness of drug users to undergo treatment and rehabilitation.

Efforts by the Philippine government in its anti-illegal drugs campaign have generated much international and regional support. Support grants are currently being programmed for relevant projects. In March 2021, the Philippines’ Dangerous Drugs Board signed the Memorandum of Agreement with 13 implementing agencies, spreading out a total amount of ₱15.5 million pesos, or roughly US$300,000.

Every step that the Philippines takes in the anti-illegal drug campaign is made known to relevant international bodies. In October 2021, the Board spearheaded the 4th National Conference of the Association of Anti- Drug Abuse Coalitions. The country also continues to engage in policy discussions with the International Narcotics Board or INCB on our compliance to the three UN Drug Control Conventions.

A possible INCB Country Mission is part of these discussions.

Finally, let me talk about a very important component that defines Philippine advocacy on human rights. This is about the civic space in the Philippines we take so much pride in, but which some have maligned in international arenas as shrinking, oppressive, and unsafe. This is farthest from the truth.

Let me start off by saying that the Philippines has perhaps one of the most vibrant democracies in the world, from which can be measured how well people’s freedoms are exercised and their rights respected, protected and fulfilled.

The Philippines’ vast civic space is home to over 101,000 non-profit organizations of which 60,000 are NGOs actively engaged in various advocacies. In the last three years, many silent and unheard human rights defenders organizations have started making their presence felt in this civic space we speak of, traditionally dominated by organizations that have secured their places in international engagements, such as in the UN and with some European States.

No less than High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, in her report on the human rights situation in the Philippines in July 2020 recognized 893 written submissions, including joint submissions, and 793 communications that informed her report. A review of these sources confirmed that indeed organizations and community- based groups with important human rights advocacies, but which have been silent for years, have capacitated themselves within that civic space, all for the cause of advancing human rights in the Philippines.

Inspired by this development, the Philippine government, in December 2021, organized the first Philippine Human Rights Defenders National Assembly that sought to further empower grassroots and non-mainstream organizations. As a result of this nationwide assembly which was attended by representatives of foreign missions, UN human rights advisers, including the UNSR on the rights of human rights defenders, more than 100 CSOs and human rights defenders organizations (HRDO) were enabled to initiate their first-ever communications with the OHCHR at the height of the pandemic which manifested diverse and multifaceted perspectives informing the human rights situation of the Philippines, including their strong support for the UNJP.

And these are the same CSOs and HRDOs that strongly objected to a highly infirmed HRD Protection Bill which was crafted without any prior consultation. A human rights defenders bill is expected to be discussed, but it shall be the result of consultations within the flourishing civic space and respectful of the human rights principle of inclusive participation.

In the meantime, the Philippines’ media environment that prides itself with over 2,000 private media entities significantly reinforces the vibrant civic space we speak of.

Media Landscapes, a global watchdog established by the European Journalism Centre, in partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, noted that the Philippines has “roughly 40 national dailies (both broadsheets and tabloids), around 60 regional and community newspapers, and 14 newspapers in the foreign language other than English, mostly Chinese.”

2021 data from our National Telecommunications Commission – easily verifiable from open sources – reveal that there are 1,485 radio stations and 546 TV stations in the Philippines. In the meantime, the government only operates 34 media outlets consisting of 32 radio stations and 2 TV stations. It has no newspaper outfit.

Finally, there are two non- profit organizations in the country that represent the cable television industry namely: the Federation of International Cable TV and Telecommunications Association (PCTA) with about 350 members of small and medium cable operators, employing tens of thousands of media workers. Added to these are the tens of thousands of Filipinos using social media as a broadcasting platform such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Tiktok.

All of this clearly reflect the manner that press freedom is freely exercised, a reality that affirms – to reiterate - the vibrant and free civic space in the country.

But protection of media practitioners must underpin press freedom. And that is a clear State commitment. As of this year, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security oversaw a total of 52 court cases of killings involving media, some of which were not even work-related. All 52 cases resulted in a guilty verdict, with the conviction of 69 killers of media workers, which included 49 of those involved in the infamous Maguindanao massacre, most of them receiving life sentences.

A significant player in our civic space is the Commission on Human Rights which continues to be one of the strongest independent national human rights institutions in Asia and the world with its A-status accreditation. For FY 2022, the CHR’s approved budget of ₱ 958 million, or US$ 17.7 million, represented a threefold increase from its FY 2014 budget at ₱ 327 million, or US$ 6 million.

The CHR co-chairs with the OHCHR the UNJP TWG on civic engagement that discusses proposals on localizing HRD protection mechanisms and the convening of safe spaces for CSOs.

In all this, the Philippines has identified a major threat to the stability of civic space. Extremist violence and terrorism continue to wreak havoc in this same space, threatening people’s rights to life, liberty, security of persons and property.

The State, as the mandated human right duty bearer and protector of our people, is compelled to exert all necessary means to address extremist violence and terrorism.

In keeping with this role, the State has involved a wide-sector of stakeholders, including human rights defenders, civil society, and the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, in the crafting of its very own Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

Thus, this law can easily be distinguished from other anti -terror legislations around the world in that it is replete with human rights provisions such as specifying the role of the Commission on Human Rights within the law itself and provisions on respect for civil and political rights. All this because of a vibrant civic space where this law has been properly discussed with advocates from various sector who have the people’s interest in mind.

Inclusivity is a feature of the States’ pursuit of a human rights-based approach to counter-terrorism under the UN Joint Program.

The same inclusive approach is also what defines the whole-of-nation engagements of the NTF-ELCAC or the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, especially in its engagements with organizations representing mothers of disappeared children, and later found to have been recruited as child combatants, a reality noted by no less than the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children in Armed Conflict in their reports. Thus far, the State, through efforts of this Task Force, has been able to recover 450 children taken by violent extremists.

Finally, civic space has been made a platform of people, organizations and communities in the implementation of the Philippine Human Rights Plan in accord with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of 1993. Our office is mandated to lead in the crafting of this plan, the third since 1995, which covers the State entire range of commitments based on the core international human rights treaties.

The national plan went through a tedious crafting process that involved civil society and NGOs. A mid-term assessment was held in 2020 through a process called Ugnayang Bayan, or a national congress that included representatives from the government’s three branches, Civil Society Groups, NGOs, UN Country Team representatives, and foreign missions. I believe most of the foreign missions represented here today participated as keen observers in that national gathering.

That is nothing less than a flourishing and vibrant civic space that will continue the advancement of human rights in the Philippines, and will likewise ensure the successful implementation of the UNJP.

Thank you for your kind attention.