Palace hits Human Rights Watch for ignoring police risk in operations

MANILA, Philippines — An international human rights group should not ignore the risk that policemen faced in conducting thousands of anti-drugs operations in the country, Malacañang said on Thursday, a day before President Rodrigo Duterte marks his first year in the presidency.

The Palace was reacting to an assessment of Human Rights Watch which described the first year of Duterte as a “human rights calamity.”

Marie Banaag, communications assistant secretary, emphasized that Duterte won on a platform of “genuine” change to provide Filipinos with a better life.

She also chided HRW for supposedly brushing aside all the government’s anti-drug programs which had resulted in 62,000 operations in the past year.

“We don’t feel good about the comments of the Human Right Watch. We also have to realize that the president stood and won on a platform of genuine change. He wanted a better life for the Filipino people,” Banaag said in a media conference at Malacañang.

“Human Rights Watch should not brush aside all the programs, especially the enforcement side,” she added.

As Duterte marks the first year of his eventful presidency this week, HRW released its assessment of his rule so far.

The human rights watchdog said Duterte, who won on a very strong anti-crime and drugs platform, unleashed a “human rights calamity” upon the Philippines as his drug war claimed thousands of lives, mostly of urban poor Filipinos.

HRW said Duterte’s war on narcotics, drug-related overcrowding of jails and harassment and prosecution of political critics such as Sen. Leila De Lima all had contributed to the “steep decline” in the respect for human rights in the Philippines.

Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of HRW, accused Duterte of “instigating an unlawful killing campaign” during his first year in Malacañang.

These comments did not sit well with Palace officials.

Banaag, however, could not provide a straight answer on questions about how successful its campaign had been considering that drugs even allegedly funded Islamic militancy in the south.

“It is up for our people to assess, how they see it,” she said while highlighting that the confiscated laboratory equipment and shabu in a year amounted to around P18 billion.

Conducting 62,000 operations was not a joke and entailed a lot of sacrifices, especially from law-enforcement authorities, according to the Palace official.

She also cited the number of individuals who surrendered as a positive sign as she underscored that the government was addressing the drug problem.

“We also have 1.3 million drug surrenderers. The government is doing something about this through the interagency committee on anti-illegal drugs. So the government is not sitting down watching lives being wasted just this way,” she said.