MANILA, Philippines — Human rights group Karapatan on Thursday criticized the newly launched National Forensics Institute (NFI) as a “cosmetic gimmick,” saying it does little to deliver genuine justice to victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under the Marcos Jr. administration.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, who is currently in Geneva for the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions, said the creation of the NFI fails to address the deeper systemic issues surrounding impunity and state-perpetrated violence in the country.

“While efforts to create a diligent and science-based system in the investigation of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations are important, let us not lose sight of the fact that for years, the justice system itself has failed the victims,” Palabay said. “In the context of continuing killings and impunity under Marcos Jr., the National Forensics Institute is viewed as a cosmetic gimmick.”

The Department of Justice launched the NFI on June 18, coinciding with the delivery of a report by UN Special Rapporteur Morris Tidball-Binz on the rights of families of EJK victims at the UNHRC.

Karapatan pointed to continuing violations, including the recent killing of a 16-year-old student named Jayson by members of the 63rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Borongan, Eastern Samar. The group said Jayson was the seventh peasant and fourth minor killed in the past year in Samar alone. The military reportedly claimed Jayson died in an armed encounter, which Karapatan disputes.

The group also condemned what it described as “systematic harassment” of families of victims in the 2021 Bloody Sunday massacre in Southern Tagalog, where nine activists were killed. Palabay said relatives of Randy and Puroy dela Cruz, as well as Greg Dasigao and Mark Lee Bacasno, were recently approached by police and National Bureau of Investigation agents to dissuade them from filing complaints.

“As long as repressive policies such as the National Security Policy and the operations of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) remain in place, extrajudicial killings will continue with impunity,” Palabay said.

She urged the international community to look beyond what she described as the Marcos administration’s “PR gimmicks” and to support calls for genuine justice and accountability.

“The opinion that Marcos is a lesser evil than Duterte is built on lies and a deliberate attempt to disregard the systemic and policy-driven causes of extrajudicial killings,” Palabay added.