THE Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is set to hold a hearing in the United States on Thursday on the human rights consequences of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
The commission said it had invited witnesses who would analyze the implementation of Duterte’s war on drugs and its consequences for the human rights situation in the Philippines.
“Although extrajudicial killings have been a major human rights concern for some time, in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016 the Department of State recognized that such killings increased sharply over the last year,” the commission said.
The witnesses who will stand before the commission are iDEFEND spokesman Ellecer Carlos, Amnesty International senior crisis adviser Matthew Wells and Human Rights Watch Asia Division deputy director Phelim Kine.
The commission said these panelists would also provide policy recommendations for ensuring accountability for human rights violations and for addressing the problems of drug abuse and trafficking in ways consistent with promoting public health and strengthening the rule of law.
The commission said the Philippines is a US treaty ally and the largest recipient of American assistance in East Asia.
The US assistance to the Philippines includes counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics support to the Philippine National Police.
“Duterte’s anti-drug campaign and reports of extrajudicial killings raise questions about how the United States should balance its concerns for protecting human rights and the rule of law with its desire to maintain the bilateral alliance and continue to pursue other shared goals,” it said.
Duterte was elected in May 2016 with 38.5 percent of the vote after campaigning on economically populist policies and a promise to eradicate the drug problem in the Philippines.
The commission said Duterte had been quoted ordering the police forces “to kill drug pushers, holdup men and do nothing… and dump all of [them] into Mania Bay and fatten all the fish there.”
In the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016, the US Department of State raised concerns on the increasing deaths over the last year.
It cited statistics from the Philippine National Police that 7,025 drug-related killings were carried out between July 1, 2016, when Duterte assumed office, and Jan. 21, 2017, or an average of 34 killings per day.