Human rights organizations condemn Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for establishing the Special Committee on Human Rights Coordination by virtue of Administrative Order No. 22 on May 8. Pursuant to the order, the committee will serve as “coordinator” in human rights matters and will be composed of officials from the Department of Justice, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of the Interior and Local Government and Presidential Human Rights Committee.

“Regardless of how many committees or task forces are created…there will be no genuine improvement in the human rights situation if abuses are allowed to persist with impunity,” according to the National Union of People’s Lawyers.

Karapatan called Marcos’ move a “a desperate attempt to window-dress the grave human rights situation in the country.” It ridiculed the “committee” as tasked with nothing but “coordination.” It is useless, just as useless as the Inter-Agency Committee set up pursuant to AO No. 35 supposedly to resolve extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and other serious human rights violations, it said.

Marcos created another “task force” to investigate violations of workers’ rights by virtue of Executive Order No. 23. It hasn’t done anything since it was established last year.

“These bodies are mere embellishments meant to appease the growing indignation here and abroad against the escalating violations of civil and political rights in the Philippines and gloss over the reality of state responsibility for the extrajudicial killings and other gross human rights and international humanitarian law violations,” Karapatan said.