National ID system,
amid militarization of gov’t bureaucracy, will lead to wholesale
rights violations
A Press Statement by the
KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
May 12, 2017
Amid the growing number of
military generals holding top posts in the government bureaucracy, the
proposed bill on the national ID system, which was recently approved
by the House Committee on Population, is bound to lead to wholesale
violation of people’s rights to freedom of movement and privacy, right
against surveillance, and right to unhampered and non-discriminatory
provision of social services.
Such proposed measures will
legitimize the already existing violations of the rights of the
people. Many activists and political dissenters were subjected to
surveillance by the state. Worse, their names were listed in the
so-called “order of battle” by the Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP)
and other similar lists as part of the counter-insurgency program of
the government. With the continuing spate of illegal arrests and
detention of activists, we believe that this policy and practice
continues to this day.
The proposed National ID
system will aggravate the already bleak human rights situation in the
country where human rights defenders and political dissenters are
subjects of surveillance, threats, illegal arrests and detention,
enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Its conspicuous
timing is also in the context of increased militarization of the
civilian bureaucracy, the continuing implementation of
counter-insurgency programs, and killings in line with the war on
drugs.
