THE Commission on Human Rights warned voters Friday not to buy the promise of presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte to kill criminal suspects to curb criminality in the country.
The group slammed the Davao City mayor’s “irrational” claims that investigating his supposed links to various human rights violations would be a great “hindrance” in pursuing his fight against criminality.
“It’s very dangerous to promote the idea that a cabal or self-appointed vigilante can decide on who should or should not be killed in their respective villages or municipalities or cities or provinces or regions,” CHR Commissioner Roberto Eugenio Cadiz said.
“Who will be the members of these vigilante groups and how will they decide on who should be on their hit list?
“If you allow this to happen, who is to guarantee that no innocent lives will be sacrificed in this mad scramble to abolish criminality within X number of months?”
Cadiz made his statement even as human rights activists vowed not to allow Duterte to “negate our hard-won triumphs.”
At a news conference in Quezon City, Judy Pasimio of Lilak (Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights) said they will not vote for Duterte since his presidency would only push back their gains.
“Filipino women have suffered so much political, social and economic marginalization in the past, but we have overcome these challenges and made significant advances in our fight for women’s rights—with men too who have stood with us in our struggles,” she said.
Duterte, who has been leading in the presidential surveys, has continued to support the extra-judicial killings of criminal suspects to combat crime.
In his speech before businessmen on Wednesday, Duterte said that while he wanted to strengthen the country’s law enforcement agencies, he saw the Human rights Commission, the Ombudsman and even Congress as a “hindrance “ to his strongman rule.
He said he was being “humiliated” by human rights bodies “investigating” his supposed links to the many killings in his city that he has ruled since 1988.
In many of his speeches, Duterte has openly lambasted the CHR for allegedly meddling in his affairs, adding that in his eventual presidency he would not care what the Ombudsman and the CHR would say.
“Step aside because I have a job to do,” Duterte said in a statement released by his camp.
He bragged about Davao’s record as the “ninth safest city” in the world because the secret was killing all criminals.
After several women’s rights groups filed a complaint before CHR Chairman Jose Luis Martin Gascon last week over his remarks on rape, Duterte said the CHR and the women’s groups should “go to hell.”
The PDP-Laban standard bearer said he will not answer the summons of the CHR and will merely throw it away.
“Duterte’s statements are odd…” Cadiz said. “It’s a dangerous notion that investigating someone for human rights violations means that they are being humiliated.”
Said Gascon: “We will continue to perform our duty with the view to ensuring all persons are held accountable for their actions.
“If people’s actions are lawful and legitimate, as they should be, then all will be well.”