By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/ Philippine News Agency
The Philippine government continues to respect the principles of equality and non-discrimination, Malacañang reiterated on Friday as it joined the international community in observing Human Rights Day.
“Indeed, any State that recognizes and respects the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination reaps benefits and rewards,” Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said in his message for the occasion.
Medialdea said President Rodrigo Duterte had introduced over the past six years programs to reduce inequalities, including free tertiary education, universal access to health care, infrastructure development, social amelioration to broaden the Filipino middle class, and the aggressive campaign to contain the pandemic’s surge and its ill-effects on people’s health and the economy.
He also mentioned the campaign against illegal drugs and criminality, efforts to put an end to the decades-long struggle against local and international terrorists, and measures to eliminate corruption in many government offices.
“The success of these endeavors had benefitted our people who deserve protection and justice as much as the rest of us – the innocent victims who have suffered at the hands of heavy drug users, terror groups, corrupt government officials, and criminals,” he said.
Even amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Medialdea said Duterte also fulfilled his promise to pursue social justice based on equal treatment and protection for the country’s poorest and most vulnerable.
As the May 2022 elections draw near, the official asked the public to choose leaders whose track records speak of the capacity to sustain this momentum.
” [O]ur people deserve the best public servants who can advance the interests of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised,” he said.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has “fed a frightening rise in inequalities and laid bare “many of our failures to consolidate the advances made”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres also said public space is shrinking while poverty and hunger are rising for the first time in decades.
As the world celebrates the 73rd anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Guterres said trust needs to be restored in the justice and impartiality of laws and institutions everywhere, together with the faith that “people can get a fair hearing, and resolve their grievances peacefully.” (PNA)-rir
