Lorenzana to ‘NPA spokesperson’ Human Rights Watch: Stop the hypocrisy

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine defense top brass on Saturday slammed New York-based Human Rights Watch for its supposed “hypocrisy” after the rights group warned that President Rodrigo Duterte was encouraging war crimes for offering kill bounty for rebels. 

“Neutralizing rebels and terrorists is a legitimate law enforcement function, and the government is not precluded from offering rewards under Philippine laws,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.

Last week, Duterte said he would train indigenous peoples, or Lumads, to be paramilitaries and pledged to pay them P20,000 for each member of the New People’s Army, the communists’ armed-wing, they can kill.

He also drew fire for his joke about ordering troops to shoot female guerrillas in the genitals.

READ: Duterte's 'shoot them in the vagina' remark encourages sexual violence, HRW says

Responding to the president’s incendiary pronouncements, HRW urged the firebrand leader to “stop encouraging his troops to commit war crimes.”

The rights group said Duterte should instead “promote measures to ensure that those responsible for abuses—including members of rebel groups and militias—are held accountable in accordance with international law.”

“Respecting rights rather than offering bounties is the best way to help the Lumad,” HRW said.

But HRW’s comment did not sit well with the country’s Defense chief, who maintained that state forces follow international humanitarian laws when operating.

“They know only too well that anyone of them who is found guilty of abuse will be sanctioned accordingly,” Lorenzana stressed.

Lorenzana also accused HRW of acting as a “spokesperson” of the NPA and being “unreasonably critical of and biased against” the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police

He said the HRW was “silent” when NPA fighters were ordered to kill one soldier per region every day, as well as when communist insurgents reportedly beheaded a former comrade of theirs who surrendered to the government.

“It stays silent even when the NPA goes on a killing rampage while quick to accuse Philippine law enforcement agencies of trumped up or unconfirmed violations,” Lorenzana said.

“In the interest of neutrality, objectivity, and the truth, we strongly urge the HRW to stop its hypocrisy and, instead, do the right thing by acknowledging and investigating these glaring atrocities being committed by the NPA,” he added. 

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