Rights group Karapatan criticized the Marcos administration’s launch of a new forensic institute, calling it a “cosmetic gimmick” that ignores continuing killings and impunity.
“While efforts to create a diligent and science-based system in the investigation of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations are important,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, “let us not lose sight of the fact that for years, the justice system itself has failed the victims of such crimes.”
Palabay is co-leading the Philippine UPR Watch delegation at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
“In the context of continuing killings and impunity under Marcos Jr., the National Forensics Institute (NFI) is viewed as a cosmetic gimmick that does not render substantive justice for the victims,” she said.
The Department of Justice launched the NFI on June 18. On the same day, UN Special Rapporteur Morris Tidball-Binz presented a report on the rights of families of extrajudicial killing victims.
Karapatan said systemic abuses continue despite the government’s reform claims. The group cited the recent killing of a 16-year-old student named Jayson in Borongan, Eastern Samar.
Soldiers from the 63rd Infantry Battalion allegedly opened fire while Jayson was working with another minor on their family farm. The military claimed it was an “armed encounter.”
Jayson was the seventh peasant killed by troops in Samar in the past year, and the fourth minor slain since February 2022, Karapatan reported.
In 2023, the same battalion allegedly killed a two-year-old boy and his grandfather in San Jose de Buan.
Karapatan also condemned the continued harassment of families of the 2021 Bloody Sunday massacre victims.
In June, police reportedly pressured the family of Dumagat farmers Randy and Puroy dela Cruz to drop plans to file charges. Other victims’ relatives reported visits from NBI agents.
“As long as repressive policies such as Marcos’ National Security Policy and National Action Plan… exist,” Palabay said, “extrajudicial killings have continued and will continue to be committed with impunity.”
She called on the international community to reject the “PR gimmicks” of the Marcos government.
“The opinion that Marcos is a lesser evil than Duterte… is built on lies,” said Palabay, “and a deliberate attempt to disregard the systemic and policy-driven causes of extrajudicial killings.”
