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In The Public Square with @jnery_newsstand: The human rights agenda under Marcos twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@jnery_newsstand As Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr is poised to be inaugurated as the 15th president of the Philippines, the question remains: What will his administration’s human rights agenda be like?

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@jnery_newsstand Veteran journalist John Nery talks to transitional justice expert Ruben Carranza, from New York, and Commission on Human Rights Executive Director Jacqueline de Guia about the human rights agenda under the second Marcos administration.

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@jnery_newsstand Commission on Human Rights Executive Director Jacqueline de Guia: Work continues at CHR, we are mindful that we have a constitutional mandate to carry out.

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@jnery_newsstand Guia: We do hear that there are many applicants and that we are very hopeful the gov't will be mindful of the importance of an independent of commission en banc. Many interesting names like Severo Catura of the Presidential Human Rights Committee.

@jnery_newsstand Transitional justice expert Ruben Carranza on Marcos' appointments: His family has used appointments to ensure impunity and ensure the narrative of the previous Marcos admin is changed. Many of the appointments are consistent with that goal.

@jnery_newsstand Carranza: Marcs Jr is still anxious about the legitimacy of his election. With this inauguration, there is still a question of legitimacy.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: Marcos Jr carries two sets of human rights baggage; his own including his family's unresolved obligations to victims of human rights violation during Martial Law, on top of that, he carries Duterte's human rights violations.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: The human rights agenda of his admin is to build the structures of impunity. Duterte has already built the foundation for that, what Marcos Jr wants to do is that foundation covers his family as well.

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@jnery_newsstand Guia: One thing we could be proud of as CHR is how we demonstrated our independence.

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@jnery_newsstand Guia says former CHR chair Chito Gascon was 'a charismatic figure': He was instrumental in soliciting political support.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: The daughter of a former dictator in South Korea was elected president many years after her father was removed from office. She ran on the basis of the same platform of Marcos Jr.; nostalgia for dictatorship.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: She apologized that her father committed human rights violation, not an explicit apology, but it was an acknowledgement.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: The son of the former King of Morocco created a truth commission examining the human rights legacy of his father.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: It is possible for a child of a dictator to acknowledge the human rights violation committed by their parents.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: The Marcoses are more concerned with accountability for corruption that they still have over accountability for human rights violation.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: I feel that they are confident about how they may no longer be held accountable in the Philippine courts, but are very anxious about their accountability in corruption.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: Marcos Jr will try to seek legitimacy not in the eyes of Filipinos, his voters have been misinformed enough, but not Western eyes and global South which still consider his family corrupt. He will maintain the CHR, use them.

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@jnery_newsstand Guia: There has been so much hostility towards human rights.... a lot of misconceptions about the mandate of the CHR. It became apparent that we have to consolidate our resources to address this problem.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: When we have a family stealing billions of dollars from their own people, it's obvious that equality will not be a priority of this admin.

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@jnery_newsstand Carranza: It's important not to forget economic and social rights violation, that human rights is meant to recognize equality. The PH is not an equal society, now under Marcos Jr, it will be even more unequal.

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@jnery_newsstand And that's a wRap! Watch #InThePublicSquare here: