Amnesty International: Duterte among world’s worst human rights violators

MANILA, Philippines — The human rights group Amnesty International (AI) has included President Duterte in the list of world leaders undermining human rights.

“The specters of hatred and fear now loom large in world affairs, and we have few governments standing up for human rights in these disturbing times. Instead, leaders such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Philippine President Duterte, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are callously undermining the rights of millions,” said AI secretary-general Salil Shetty.

This developed as AI yesterday launched its annual report or assessment of human rights, “The State of the World’s Human Rights” that covered 159 countries.

In the report, the organization pointed out that in the Philippines, thousands of unlawful killings by police and other armed individuals continued as part of the government’s anti-drugs campaign.

The group said human rights defenders critical of the campaign were singled out and targeted by Duterte and his allies.

A state of martial law was declared and extended twice on the island of Mindanao, raising fears of further human rights abuses. Attempts to reintroduce the death penalty stalled at the Senate after a bill was passed by the House of Representatives, AI said.

The deliberate, unlawful and widespread killing of thousands of alleged drug offenders appeared to be systematic, planned, organized and encouraged by authorities, and may have constituted crimes against humanity.

Most of those killed were from urban poor communities, AI noted.

Despite evidence that policemen and gunmen with links to the police killed or paid others to kill alleged drug offenders in a wave of extrajudicial executions, authorities continued to deny any unlawful deaths.

In January last year, the President suspended the violent anti-drugs campaign for one month following the killing in police custody of a South Korean businessman.

In March, the unlawful killings of suspected drug offenders in police operations resumed, as did drug-related killings by other armed individuals.

The number of killings on a single day in police anti-drug operations reached 32 in August.

In September, the killings of three teenagers within a few weeks sparked a national outcry.

Closed circuit television footage and witness statements contradicted police accounts of the killing of one of the three, 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, who according to forensic experts and witnesses appeared to have been extrajudicially executed.

“In October, President Duterte announced that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency would take over the anti-drugs campaign from the Philippine National Police. However, it was announced less than two months later that police might rejoin anti-drug operations, despite unresolved issues. Meaningful investigations into killings of alleged drugs offenders failed to take place; no police officers were known to have been held to account. Relatives of victims continued to be fearful of reprisals if they filed complaints against police,” the report read.

The report also pointed out that “attacks against the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also intensified, as lawmakers accused it of ‘siding with suspected criminals’ in the anti-drugs campaign and caused uproar by approving a budget of just $20 (P1,000), before the decision was overturned in the Senate.

“Human rights groups expressed concern at reports of increased numbers of arbitrary arrests and detention, and extrajudicial executions of political activists and individuals aligned with the left, following a declaration of martial law in the island of Mindanao and as peace talks between communist rebels, the New People’s Army and the government broke down.”

“Governments are shamelessly turning the clock back on decades of hard-won protections. Defenders of human rights around the world can look to the people of the United States to stand with them, even where the US government has failed. As President Trump takes actions that violate human rights at home and abroad, activists from across the country remind us that the fight for universal human rights has always been waged and won by people in their communities,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of AI USA.

Shetty said, “In 2018, we cannot take for granted that we will be free to gather together in protest or to criticize our governments. In fact, speaking out is becoming more dangerous.”

Jacqueline de Guia, CHR executive director and spokesperson, said AI is an independent organization and the group is free to express its stand on issues confronting the country, including the ongoing preliminary examination of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the government’s campaign against illegal drugs and the rising number of deaths linked to it.

“On the part of CHR, as an advocate of rule of law, we encourage the government to act on these allegations and cooperate since the Philippines is a signatory to the Rome Statute, a treaty that binds us to the ICC,” she added.

Warning shot

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said yesterday that the government should take the US intelligence community report on the Philippines seriously unless it wants to end up being considered a threat to national security of the US.

Trillanes said that the administration, if it was sensitive enough, “should realize that it is virtually a warning shot.”

“Duterte’s actions were assessed to be undemocratic and is nearing the red line where he would be considered a threat to national security of the US government,” Trillanes said.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the report stating that Duterte was a threat to democracy was not at all surprising.

“What does the Duterte government expect from the international community, accolades? The report merely confirms the growing isolation of the country from the international community and the already prevalent global opinion that President Duterte’s governance is contrary to the generally accepted principles of democracy, human rights and rule of law,” Hontiveros said.

She said that the report is an embarassment for the country as Duterte is being placed alongside Cambodian leader Hun Sen, the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and Thailand’s military-backed constitution as threats to democracy.

On the other hand, Sen. Gregorio Honasan said that such intelligence reports should not be given too much importance.

“They were not able to prevent the 9/11 attack even with the information that we provided,” Honasan said.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that the report appears to be based on perceptions brought about by headlines in news reports and not on facts.

He noted how the President tends to exaggerate just like when he threatened to declare a revolutionary government.

“I’m wondering why and I would like to see why we went down when we’re just cited as having the most budget transparency in Asia, as well as having an executive order on FOI (Freedom of Information) issued recently,” said Sen. Sonny Angara. – With Marvin Sy