President Rodrigo Duterte with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (Left) and General Eduardo Año (Right), June 11, at the Camp Brig. General Edilberto Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro City. (Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s first year in office was marred with human rights calamity, assault on critics and unabated killings.
HRW said that since Duterte’s inauguration on June 30 last year, there was a steep decline in respect for basic human rights because of the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign which resulted to harassment and prosecution of the government’s drug war critics.
“President Duterte took office promising to protect human rights, but has instead spent his first year in office as a boisterous instigator for an unlawful killing campaign,” Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
“Duterte has supported and incited ‘drug war’ killings while retaliating against those fearless enough to challenge his assault on human rights,” he added.
With the Duterte administration’s bloody drug war, law enforcement and security forces have killed at least 7, 000 suspected drug users and dealers since July 1, including 3,116 killings by police, according to government data.
Despite this, HRW lamented that the Duterte administration has rejected all domestic and international call for accountability for the documented rights abuses in the wake of the prevailing anti-illegal drug policy of the government.
The human rights group discovered that “government claims that the deaths of suspected drug users and dealers were lawful were blatant falsehoods.”
“Interviews with witnesses and victims’ relatives and analysis of police records expose a pattern of unlawful police conduct designed to paint a veneer of legality over extrajudicial executions that may amount to crimes against humanity,” HRW said.
HRW added that Duterte’s “war on drugs” also worsened the already dire conditions of Philippine jail facilities, including inadequate food and unsanitary conditions.
The Duterte administration has subjected prominent critics of the government’s anti-drug campaign to harassment, intimidation, and even arrest, according to HRW.
“During his first year in office, President Duterte and his government have demonstrated a fundamental unwillingness to respect rights or provide justice for people whose rights have been violated,” Kine said.
“A UN-led international investigation is desperately needed to help stop the slaughter and press for accountability for Duterte’s human rights catastrophe.” (davaotoday.com)
