Hundreds of people marched in the Philippine capital of Manila on Saturday to protest rising extrajudicial killings and other injustices under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The protesters, led by a Philippine human rights organization, gathered in a public square in Manila before marching to the presidential palace to demand justice.
Police estimated that about 800 protesters took part in the protest, which coincided with International Human Rights Day.
Cristina Palabay, of the Karapatan human rights group, said that during the anti-insurgency campaign of the Marcos government, the group has documented at least 17 cases of extrajudicial killings, in addition to four other incidents of violence where victims survived.
The number of political prisoners continues to rise, with 828 arrests as of Nov. 30, Palabay said, noting that at least 25 of them were detained after Marcos took office in June.
“Despite these sordid numbers, there has been no justice for victims of extrajudicial killings,” Palabay said in a statement. “The culture of impunity continues,” the activist lamented.
Organizers said the demonstrators, in Manila and elsewhere in the country, included families of activists who disappeared or were tortured during the reign of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos, father of the current president, as well as victims of human rights abuses during his tenure. former President Rodrigo Duterte, whose brutal war on drugs is under investigation by the International Criminal Court after claiming thousands of deaths.
Dictator Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown in a military-backed popular uprising in 1986 and died three years later in exile in the US without admitting any wrongdoing, including allegations that he, family and associates had a fortune of up to $10 billion in dollars (9.5). billion euros) while Marcos was in power.
The Karapatan group said the current government is also increasingly using anti-terrorism laws to suppress dissent and curtail freedom of speech, press and association.
Source: DN
