While hitting human rights groups; Sueno to go on with planned tagging of 'drug-free' homes

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Despite drawing flak from human rights groups this early, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police will continue their plan to put stickers on houses, verified as "drug-free,' nationwide.

DILG Secretary Ismael "Mike" Sueno, who was in Iloilo City yesterday for a peace and order council meeting, said he learned about the claims of human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), that the government will be violating human rights if it will push on with its 'drug-free' stickers plan.

"So, I told them (the AI), how are we violating human rights?," Sueno told a crowd, consisting of hundreds of personnel of the Police Regional Office-6 headquarters at Camp Martin Delgado in Iloilo City.

"You used to say that then Manila mayor Alfredo Lim violated human rights for spray-painting houses of drug addicts in the 1990s. But we are not doing that now," he said. "We are looking for homes that are drug-free. What's the problem there?" Sueno said.

"It's not shaming those that would not qualify," Sueno said. Instead, "we are shepherding them. We are not condemning them. But we are taking care of them," he said.

"For families who are not qualified to be tagged for a drug-free home, maybe because of the presence of a drug addict, we will not condemn them. We will take care of them," he said. Instead, they would be asked to take part in the shepherding efforts until their homes would be classified later on as "drug-free."

"I go around listening to the best practices of our people. This is practiced in Bohol. And I found out that this is also practiced in Quezon City and Mandaluyong City. We are gathering these practices and we are coming out with our final mechanics by the first or second week of March," Sueno said.

The Peace and Order Council will do the validation of drug-free homes, and those that are not will be reported to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)," he told The Freeman.

"That's why, I say that the problem with Amnesty International and (other) human rights groups, they always see wrong on what we do. That is why, we should not call them human rights groups; we should call them international human wrong groups," Sueno said.

Despite the criticisms, Sueno assured all human rights groups the government "will protect the rights of a Filipino as a person, and the rights of the people to survive, to develop, to prosper, and to be happy as a Filipino nation." (FREEMAN)