The Duterte administration’s “unrelenting” crusade against illegal drugs and criminality has protected “the lives of the innocent law-abiding citizens of the country,” Malacañang said on Monday as the country joined the global observance of the 70th year of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Norman Cruz
The Palace claims come amid widespread condemnation by human rights groups of the government’s bloody war on drugs, which has claimed the lives of thousands of drug suspects and users.
In a letter released by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat, said the rule of law was upheld as the guilty are brought to justice in the government’s “unrelenting… crusade against criminality, corruption, terrorism, insurgency and the proliferation of human drugs.”
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo, on the other hand, reiterated the government’s stance that there are no officially sanctioned killings.
“Human rights, as depicted by the critics, as well as those critics from abroad, do not reflect what is happening on the ground. When they keep on saying that many have been killed, they make it appear as if the killings are state-initiated. But we have repeatedly said that the fact alone that policemen are killed during operation will already rebut the theory that this is state-initiated,” Panelo said in a press briefing Monday.
He said those killed in the drug war had fought back against the police, or had been killed by drug lords who wanted to silence them.
According to the latest data of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, almost 5,000 deaths were recorded in police anti-drug operations since the Duterte assumed the presidency in July 2016.
At least two opposition senators accused President Rodrigo Duterte of being the single biggest threat to human rights in the Philippines.
Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros said the President has singlehandedly rolled back human rights safeguards and made the country a haven for human rights violators.
By unleashing a bloody and abusive war on drugs, Hontiveros said the President has set into motion the killing of thousands, most of whom are poor people; this while big-time drug lords like Peter Lim continue to be free and billions of pesos worth of shabu are smuggled into the country aided by corrupt government officials.
“The right to dissent has been denigrated into plots to destabilize the government. The justice system is mostly efficient when legally harassing members of the opposition and the critical media, but grinds to a complete halt when dealing with the likes of Imelda Marcos,” Hontiveros said.
“And on the few occasions that justice has actually prevailed, such as our important victory in the Kian delos Santos case, we have owed it to the people’s untiring vigilance, which made the whitewashing of the extrajudicial killing untenable,” she added.
Women’s rights are also constantly under attack under President Duterte, she said. Women are threatened with rape and violence, publicly shamed and reduced to body parts.
The President’s language has become the primary medium through which sexism and misogyny are translated into real attacks against women, especially women in government who are highly critical of his anti-people policies, Hontiveros said.
Senator Leila de Lima, detained on drug charges that she says have been trumped up by the administration, called on Filipinos to rally with renewed passion behind the promotion and protection of human rights.
In her message for the 70th anniversary of the UDHR, De Lima said the Filipino people should demonstrate their strong commitment to defending the dignity and rights of individuals.
“We must come together in our common defense of human rights. We cannot remain quiet and rely passively on governments. We, the people ourselves have to act—act urgently and in solidarity with one another,” she said.
In 1948, the UDHR was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris. The assembly later passed a resolution declaring every Dec. 10 as International Human Rights Day to commemorate the day the UDHR was adopted. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
