{"id":9207,"date":"2024-03-19T01:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T00:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=9207"},"modified":"2024-03-15T17:04:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T16:04:27","slug":"philippines-australia-strengthen-bilateral-cooperation-without-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/philippines-australia-strengthen-bilateral-cooperation-without-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines-Australia strengthen bilateral cooperation without human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of his two-day state visit<\/span><\/a> to Australia, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. emphasized the importance of the strategic partnership between the two countries in light of increasing regional political tensions in the Indo-Pacific in a speech to the Federal Parliament in Canberra on February 29, 2024. Marcos Jr. underlined<\/span><\/a> the importance of unimpeded passage and freedom of navigation in the region for maintaining regional peace. However, human rights<\/span><\/a> were not mentioned.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Marcos Jr. and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed<\/span><\/a> three new bilateral agreements on maritime cooperation, cyber resilience and cooperation between competition commissions of the two countries. In September 2023, the Philippines and Australia had already agreed on a strategic partnership<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marcos Jr’s visit and speech in the Parliament sparked<\/span><\/a> criticism and concern within Australian civil society. At least four Australian Members of the Parliament joined the protests<\/span><\/a> outside the Parliament House in Canberra. Senator Janet Rice was escorted out of the Parliament House for holding up a sign<\/span><\/a> reading “Stop Human Rights Violations” during Marcos Jr’s speech. Some Marcos critics in the parliament applauded<\/span><\/a> Rice, while others promptly tabled a censure order. Rice might also<\/span><\/a> face a “persona non grata” declaration in the Philippines. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch called on the Australian members of the parliament to hold Marcos Jr. accountable and to send<\/span><\/a> him clear messages about the importance of human rights and the rule of law.<\/span><\/p>\n

After his trip to Australia, Marcos Jr. emphasized<\/span><\/a> in an interview in early March 2024 that he had no authoritarian tendencies and that his government was committed to upholding democratic principles. At the same time, he justified<\/span><\/a> the declaration of martial law by his father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., which brought with it numerous serious human rights violations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tensions<\/a><\/span> in the West Philippine Sea between the Philippines and China are also continuing. China has been trying to assert its territorial claims in the region for years by building<\/span><\/a> artificial islands and increasing its military presence, among others. Another incident occurred on March 5, 2024, when the Chinese coast guard injured<\/span><\/a> at least four Filipinos while firing water cannons. The US, together with EU countries, issued a statement<\/span><\/a> to China underlining the importance of respecting international law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since taking office in mid-2022, Marcos Jr. has moved the Philippines closer<\/span><\/a> to the USA and is striving to normalize diplomatic relations with the EU, which had suffered greatly under his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. To this end, Marcos Jr. travelled<\/span><\/a> to Berlin on March 12, 2024, to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9 Daniel Morton, unsplash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of his two-day state visit to Australia, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. emphasized the importance of the strategic partnership between the two countries in light of increasing regional political tensions in the Indo-Pacific in a speech to the Federal Parliament in Canberra on February 29, 2024. Marcos Jr. underlined the importance of unimpeded passage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights-news","category-international-institutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9217,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9207\/revisions\/9217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}