Column: Amid crisis, support Philippine Human Rights Act

My friend Jeremy (not his real name) is a 58-year-old asylum seeker in Hawaii. He fled the Philippines due to the heightened political repression, after his legal, nonprofit organization landed on the “red-tagging” list of the Philippine military and the National Police. Red-tagging is when individuals or organizations are accused of being or supporting the communist insurgency. Such tagging spells security problems — harassment, raids, search warrants, fabricated cases and even extra-judicial killings.

When elements of the military started going around the communities that he served to ask questions about him, his sons begged him to go into hiding because they already lost their mom, murdered by the military, during the last presidential regime’s rampage against the “communist insurgency” that left over a thousand unarmed, civilian activists dead.

Jeremy and his family’s fears are not unfounded. The Rodrigo Duterte regime has been notably ruthless in his campaigns against the poor, indigenous peoples, farmers, youth, women, human rights defenders. Legitimate issues and concerns raised by the people are seen as “fighting” the government. The policy of violating peoples’ basic rights emanates from the pronouncement of Duterte’s “kill, kill, kill” orders.

In the first three years of Duterte’s presidency, more than 30,000 people have been killed in the drug war and more than 400,000 Moro and Lumad people in Mindanao were displaced from their homes. Recently, state security forces have been ramping up their efforts to round up activists through raids and arrests. The death count is mounting. In the same manner, they harass, jail, and kill journalists, lawyers and even church leaders who speak up. All of these operations are preceded by red-tagging campaigns like the one Jeremy’s organization is facing.

This war on the people is being supported by U.S. taxpayer money. Since 2016, more than $550 million have been sent to the Philippines in military aid alone. It begs the question: How can people in the U.S. stand idly by while their tax money is being used to rain terror on the Filipino people?

Here, in Hawaii, working people are being squeezed for every cent in taxes. But where do these taxes go? I can get behind supporting social service programs that help people with their necessities like food, education, jobs and housing. I’m sure at least some of my taxes go to those services, but I know so many people who have been devastated by a global pandemic and still have not received their unemployment insurance benefits. Social issues like inequality, houselessness and hunger are glaring. To know that hundreds of millions of dollars are being used to commit human rights violations in the Philippines instead of addressing our issues at home is unconscionable.

This is why community groups such as HICHRP (Hawaii Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines) want to pass the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA). In June, U.S. Congresswoman Susan Wild (D-Pa.) re-introduced the PHRA, which calls to suspend U.S. security assistance to the Philippines until such time as human rights violations by Philippine security officials cease and responsible state forces are held accountable.

We strongly urge our federal representatives to sign on to the PHRA. We know their concerns are about U.S. military positioning in the Pacific, but real lives are at stake.

Yoko Liriano co-chairs the Hawaii Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (HICHRP).