By The human rights group Karapatan is concerned about the perceived increase in extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations due to the return of the barangay intelligence network or BIN under Executive Order No. 54 signed by President Marcos Jr on January 23, 2024.
EO 54 will fix the structure of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency or NICA. This was initiated by the Department of the Interior and Local Government or DILG to protect those who are at risk to national security including illegal drugs through counter-intelligence, cybersecurity, and others.
But according to Karapatan, the BIN has already been used for counter-insurgency in barangays where mass leaders and activists have been illegally arrested, imprisoned on trumped-up charges, abducted, and killed.
Karapatan added, that with the return of BIN under NICA, barangay-level informants against illegal drugs can be used covertly for the government’s counter-insurgency efforts. Karapatan also sees that NICA’s cybersecurity will only worsen the cyber-surveillance and monitoring of the emails and social media accounts of targeted individuals./PT
