Soccsksargen RTF-ELCAC questions anew HR defenders bill

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 9, 2022): Soccsksargen RTF-ELCAC questions anew HR defenders bill (By Richelyn Gubalani)

National Intelligence Coordinating Agency -Region 12 Director Eduardo Marquez (File photo courtesy of Richelyn Gubalani)

The Soccsksargen (Region-12 ) Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) on Wednesday opposed anew the Human Rights Defenders Bill, describing it as "dangerous".

Director Eduardo Marquez of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency-12 and a member of RTF-ELCAC, said in an interview Wednesday the bill is nothing but a “propaganda" of communist organizations to allow "pretenders" of human rights defenders in Congress to advance their deceits.

He said the bill could serve and protect the interest of dissident organizations such as the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

“If passed into a law, it will open the floodgates of abuse and torment on our people by (radicals) like the CPP-NPA-NDF and it will make the Anti-Terrorism Law that was recently declared constitutional by the Supreme Court ineffective and toothless," Marquez said.

“Every individual can be considered a human rights defender at hindi eto dapat selective (and this should not be selective). Ang masama lang dito (What’s bad about this) is that the human rights issue has been exploited or abused to discredit the government and romanticize the agenda of some individuals or groups who have the intention to demonize the government like what these communist groups are doing (right now),” he added.

Marquez said the ludicrous bill defines who are and are not “human rights defenders,” a definition so porous in its broadness that even the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and the CPP-NPA-NDF can be defined as rights defenders.

The approved bill is a consolidated version of proposed bills from House members Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman; Quezon City 6th District Rep. Jose Christopher “Kit” Belmonte Makabayan bloc, including Bayan Muna Reps. Carlos Zarate, Eufemia Cullamat, and Ferdinand Gaite, Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro and Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago.

The bill was approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading on January 17 with 200 affirmative votes, zero negative vote, and no abstention.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The NDF has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1167437