CHR tells gov’t: Take human rights seriously

MANILA, Philippines - The government must heed observations of heightened human rights violations in the country, particularly by international monitor Human Rights Watch (HRW), the head of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said yesterday.

“While the investigations the HRW undertakes are independent and separate from what CHR itself does, we are always prepared to cooperate with them and cross-validate their data,” CHR Chairman Chito Gascon said. 

Gascon was reacting to HRW’s annual human rights situation report released on Friday, which noted an unprecedented level of killings by law enforcement since President Duterte took office. 

“This annual report, as well as that regularly issued by Amnesty International, should be taken seriously by all government agencies, particularly the executive and the judiciary, as well as monitoring bodies, such as the CHR,” Gascon said. 

“The police categorize those killings as ‘deaths under investigation,’ but there is no evidence that the police are actively probing the circumstances in which they occurred,” the HRW report read. 

“Duterte has ignored calls for an official probe into these killings. Instead, he has said the killings show the ‘success’ of his anti-drug campaign and urged police to ‘seize the momentum’,” it added. 

HRW deputy Asia director Phelim Kine said Duterte has steamrolled human rights protections and elevated unlawful killings of criminal suspects as a cornerstone of government policy.

“Friends of the Philippines need to make clear that it can’t be business as usual until the killings stop and there are meaningful moves toward accountability,” Kine stressed.

Aside from extrajudicial killings, the HRW also noted other key human rights events in the Philippines last year. 

These include issues on the rights of indigenous peoples, violations of reproductive health rights, child labor and stigma and discrimination related to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

A la Lee Kwan Yew

Meanwhile, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella compared Duterte’s leadership style to that of the late Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew amid HRW’s concerns over Duterte’s “authoritarian tendencies.”

Abella said Duterte has become a very decisive leader in whatever he wants to attain as President, after serving as city mayor for 23 years.

“The President is very authoritative and we can see it on how he does his work, and let us remember that he goes by the rule of law,” Abella said over state-run radio dzRB. “Maybe, that’s why they call him (as such), especially the liberal media and the liberal political order. They are antagonistic on more authoritative forms or styles of governance.” 

The Palace spokesman pointed out that Lee, who was very strict as a leader, led his nation to progress. 

Abella urged the public to be not only ideological but also consider the citizens’ welfare.