Amnesty: Duterte used drug war to justify repression

MANILA, Philippines — An international human rights watchdog has cited President Rodrigo Duterte as an example of an official blaming social problems in order to justify repressive government actions.

London-based Amnesty International noted that the erosion of human rights values was most harmful when leaders blame a specific "other" for real or perceived social problems in justifying repression.

"By casting collective responsibility for social and economic ills onto particular groups, often ethnic or religious minorities, those in power gave free rein to discrimination and hate crimes, particularly in Europe and the USA," AI said in its annual report on the state of human rights.

Such hateful, divisive and dehumanizing rhetoric brought out the "darkest instincts of human nature."

"One variant of this was demonstrated by the escalation, with enormous loss of life, of President Rodrigo Duterte’s 'war on drugs' in the Philippines," the report read.

AI noted that more than 6,000 alleged drug offenders have been killed by authorities and vigilantes following the endorsement of Duterte.

The human rights watchdog branded Duterte as an "anti-establishment" politician along with United States President Donald Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"When self-styled 'anti-establishment' figures blamed so-called elites, international institutions and the 'other' for social or economic grievances, they chose the wrong prescription," AI said.

The report noted the sense of insecurity arising from unemployment, job insecurity, growing inequality and the loss of public services were not easy to blame.

"It was clear that many disillusioned people around the world did not seek answers in human rights," AI said.

The government has said that it upholds and respects human rights and has denied involvement in the majority of the drug-related deaths, which have been blamed on vigilantes and on in-fighting among drug syndicates. 

READ: Duterte officials hold drug suspects, criminals not human

Government officials, including Duterte himself, have shown disdain for human rights and have said that rights do not necessarily apply to suspected criminals. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, for example has been quoted as saying: "The criminals, the drug lords, drug pushers, they are not humanity. They are not humanity." He claims he was misquoted. 

Sen. Leila De Lima, an opposition senator facing drug charges for her alleged involvement in the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary, claims that she is being prosecuted for being critical of Duterte.

The Philippines was among the five countries specifically mentioned in the report together with the US, Hungary, India and Turkey.

In a press briefing, AI Philippines campaign coordinator Wilnor Papa said that it was the first time since Martial Law that the Philippines was mentioned in the foreword of the annual worldwide human rights report.

The AI annual report, "The State of the World's Human Rights," documented grave violations of human rights in 159 countries in 2016.

In its 408-page annual report, the group described 2016 as "the year when the cynical use of 'us vs. them' narratives of blame, hate and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s," when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. — with reports from Elizabeth Marcelo