Lagman urges Marcos to punish perpetrators of human rights violations

Albay Representative  Edcel Lagman on Tuesday urged President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to end the culture of impunity and hold perpetrators of human rights atrocities accountable, from the Martial Law regime of his father to the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a privilege speech, Lagman said that the Marcos scion failed to mention his stance on human rights during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

"'Unity' has been the clarion call of Marcos Jr. since the electoral campaign. Starkly absent from this call are the concrete basis of unity," said Lagman, whose brother - labor lawyer Hermon Lagman - disappeared on May 11, 1977, during the elder Marcos' regime.

"For the victims and survivors of human rights violations, there can be no reconciliation, much less unity, without truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition of the State-sponsored brutalities."

Lagman said these in included "patriots and nationalists" who were treated as "enemies of the State."

"Thousands of these activists and human rights defenders became victims of atrocities during the Marcos, Sr. martial law regime and even during the subsequent Administrations," the lawmaker said.

Lagman thus urged Marcos Jr. to take the following steps:

• accede to the remaining core treaty to which the Philippines is not yet a State party – the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; 
• re-accede to the Rome Statute from which the Philippines withdrew at the behest of former President Rodrigo Duterte;
• commit to cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the crimes against humanity committed during the Duterte administration;
• have a dialogue with the human rights violations survivors, particularly those victimized during the Marcos Sr. rule;
• exact accountability from all human rights violators from the Marcos Sr. regime to the Duterte administration, and end impunity;
• stop historical distortion and dismantle the deceitful massive and well-entrenched infrastructure of disinformation facilitating historical distortion and mass amnesia;
• and certify the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill as a priority measure.

Lagman was a co-author of the Human Rights Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013, which provided financial compensation to the victims of human rights violations during the elder Marcos' Martial Law Regime from 1972 to 1986.

At least 11,000 survivors of the Martial law atrocities received compensation under this law from ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family that the Philippine government recovered from Swiss banks, based on the records of the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board.

But Lagman said this was not enough.

"Mr. Speaker, human rights violations are not a monopoly of the Marcos, Sr. regime. They have persisted up to the present. Hence, the imperative of appropriate institutional reforms from decision-making to policy implementation," Lagman said.

"It is hoped that President Marcos Jr. has the courage, determination, and leadership to effectively respect, protect, and fulfill human rights in accordance with the unmistakable mandate of the Constitution and the internationally accepted norms and standards in numerous international instruments to which the Philippines is a State Party."

After meeting with President Marcos Jr., UN Resident Coordinator Gustavo Gonzales announced that the Philippine leader committed to supporting the human rights agenda of the United Nations Joint Program (UNJP), particularly the “enhancement of accountability in terms of human rights”.

GMA News Online sought the Palace's reaction to Lagman's speech, but Malacañang had yet to respond as of posting time. — DVM/JST, GMA News