The exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association are essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in every State. Democracy, good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law are pillars on which the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association are built and can flourish to achieve sustainable development. (excerpt from the report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voulé, UN General Assembly, August 7, 2018)
The women and men of the Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera (CDPC) joins the global community in commemorating the 71st year of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. More importantly, the CDPC stands with all development workers asserting respect for human rights and freedom of association and assembly in the attainment of sustainable development especially among marginalized sectors and communities.
We stand with the people of the Cordillera in the quest for just and lasting peace, especially in this time of tyranny under the current administration, where freedom of assembly and association and human rights in general are wantonly disregarded and violated. We are not spared by this tyranny inflicted by the State. In our 30 years of development work, we witnessed and experienced various forms of repression and persecution. The years under this current regime marked various debilitating forms of impediment in the implementation of our services and programs. Our staff on right to health program was incarcerated for a year due to fabricated charges of murder and multiple frustrated murder by no less than the Armed Forces of the Philippines. She was acquitted of the charges.
Additionally, staff of one of our consortium partners were reported as members of the militia (civilian guerillas) again by State armed forces while providing relief services and community training on disaster response. Our activities and presence in the communities whether in far flung or provincial centers are being monitored discreetly by State security forces despite our compliance on burdensome and excessive legal and administrative requirements.
Efforts to isolate us and severe our funding are systematically being orchestrated diplomatically or surreptitiously.
NGO collaboration with local government units is being restricted if not totally prohibited under the counter-insurgency program of the Duterte administration which unjustly labels particular legal NGOs as fronts of insurgents and thereby forms part of the targets of the counter-insurgency program. The whole-of-nation approach obligates all government units to direct their services to ending communist insurgency. Directing services towards military objective undermines the principle of social justice and equity in the administration of social and development services. Administration of social and development services will more likely be grounded on military objectives instead of being based on sustainable solutions for local needs and priorities. A case in point is the local government units that are obligated to be part of the task forces on ending local communist armed conflict where social and development services are being planned, including which NGOs to collaborate with and which to exclude.
Manipulating civilian bureaucracies for countering insurgency is more likely to distort developing strong institutions as duty bearers of human rights. Further, political persecution of development workers and human rights defenders and exclusion of NGOs runs counter to SDG 16 on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. No nation can achieve sustainable development in the face of tyranny. We therefore join the rest of the Filipino people in fighting for genuine democracy, justice and peace—only then can development for the people be truly attained. ***