While the drug-related killings have overshadowed enforced disappearances, there are reports of the rise of the number of EJK victims who were first abducted and disappeared before their bodies were found.
By HEATHER MARIAN AMOROSO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) called on President Duterte, Friday June 8, to stop extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances.
AFAD Secretary General Mary Bacalso said in a press briefing that the country is experiencing the “worst human rights crisis” since the Marcos dictatorship with 535 reported incidents, 358 of which occurred during the reign of Martial Law in Mindanao.
“The violent crackdown on illegal drugs has plunged the Philippines into its worst human rights crisis since the Marcos dictatorship with an unprecedented number of human rights violations and among which are enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings,” Bacalso said.
The government, however, has denied any involvement in the killings, saying that nearly 4,000 were killed in police operations for resisting arrest and the police had to defend themselves.
Bacalso reported that out of 2,326 reported victims of enforced disappearances, only 1,993 have been documented. Of this, 1,166 have yet to appear, 584 surfaced alive while 243 were found dead.
AFAD, furthermore, urged the government to fully implement Republic Act 10353 or the Anti-enforced of Involuntary Disappearances Act of 2012, which makes crimes on enforced disappearance punishable by life imprisonment.
While the drug-related killings have overshadowed enforced disappearances, there are reports of the rise of the number of EJK victims who were first abducted and disappeared before their bodies were found.
Human rights organizations however, find it extremely difficult to document these cases as the families of the victims refuse to disclose material information about the disappearance and the subsequent extrajudicial killing for fear of reprisal, intimidation or them suffering the same fate, the groups said.
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Chito Gascon urged the government to reconnect the Philippines’s ties with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the country made steps to withdraw from the Rome Statute.
“We should affirm to the global community that we are a country that is committed to international justice and to show that, we must prove full support to the International Criminal Court,” Gascon said. 
