VERA Files
(Updated) Mentioning the status of criminality in the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has claimed that human rights violations in the country have gone down by half in 2023. This needs context.
STATEMENT
In a speech before rank officers of the Philippine National Police last month, Marcos said incidents of human rights violations in the country were decreasing alongside index crimes, and that these were made possible “without subverting the rule of law.”
The president said:
“Incidents of human rights violations were down by half in 2023 as compared to 2022. It proves that rules that strengthen the fabric of our democracy, rules that our heroes had died for, rules that [are] enshrined in our Constitution, are not inconveniences in policing but are, in fact, integral and indispensable in serving up justice.”
Source: RTVMalacañang, Oath-taking of PNP Star Rank Officers (Speech) 3/18/2024, March 18, 2024, watch from 3:46 to 3:54
FACT
Although Marcos did not cite any basis for the claim, data from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) show that cases of alleged human rights violations did fall in 2023 but not by 50%. CHR recorded 1,608 cases of alleged HRVs that year, down by only 4.51% from 1,684 in 2022.
BACKSTORY
Under Philippine laws, human rights violations may take the form of extra-legal (extrajudicial) killings, torture, enforced or involuntary disappearance (EID), violence against women and children and any act that “grossly violates” a person’s right to life, liberty and security of their physical or mental integrity.”
In November 2012, the late president Benigno Aquino III issued Administrative Order No. 35, creating an inter-agency committee to investigate and prosecute cases of extra-legal killings, torture, EID, and other grave human rights violations.
Editor’s note: The table in this article was updated on April 12, 4:34 p.m. to reflect recent data from the CHR.
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Sources
Personal Communication, Commission on Human Rights, April 2, 2024
Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report – 2022, Accessed April 11, 2024
Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report – 2021, Accessed April 11, 2024
Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report – 2020, Accessed April 11, 2024
Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report – 2019, Accessed April 11, 2024
Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report – 2018, Accessed April 11, 2024
Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report – 2017, Accessed April 11, 2024
Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report – 2016, Accessed April 11, 2024
Department of Justice, Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings and Enforced Disappearance Meet to Adopt Guidelines for Investigation and Prosecution :: Department of Justice – Republic of the Philippines, April 12, 2013
Official Gazette of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 9262, March 8, 2004
Official Gazette of the Philippines, Administrative Order No. 35, s. 2012 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, Nov. 22, 2012
