Duterte’s ‘chilling’ drug war lambasted

‘STOP THE KILLINGS’ Militants call for an end to summary killings as President Duterte intensifies his bloody war on illegal drugs during a rally in January outside the national police headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

President Rodrigo Duterte drew harsh criticisms from a bishop, a senator and rights groups for separating human rights from people’s lives in his third State of the Nation Address (Sona), as he vowed to pursue a “relentless and chilling” war on drugs.

But another senator lauded the President for vowing to continue the antidrug campaign.

Reacting to the President’s statement that “your concern is human rights, mine is human lives,” which he directed at human rights groups, Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said it “implies that the victims of drug-related killings are not human lives!”

“Is not the right to life the most basic human right?” David asked in a Facebook post late Monday night.

David, vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the President’s statement was “illogical” but not really surprising.

‘Focus on big suppliers’

Unlike David, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chair of the Senate public order committee, was happy to hear that the President “is not relenting on the government’s war against illegal drugs.”

“Indeed, so much has yet to be accomplished, particularly its focus on big-time drug lords. It’s even reassuring that it remains on top of his agenda for the succeeding years of his presidency,” Lacson said.

David said the government should focus its fight against illegal drugs on big suppliers rather than on drug users.

“How come the supply of illegal drugs remains steady in spite of all the killings?” he said.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the antidrug campaign would not succeed as long as it kept on focusing on the killing of small fry and not on catching suppliers.

The President need not look far to see why this was not working, Pangilinan said.

The President’s own hometown continues to be plagued by illegal drugs, the senator added.

Scary

David said that while the President’s Sona was “relatively sober,” his warning that his drug war “will be as relentless and as chilling as on the day it began” was scary.

“It means we have to brace ourselves for more killings,” he lamented.

The Philippine National Police said 4,354 people had been killed in drug operations from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018, much lower than the 12,000 estimated by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The PNP assured the public that there was no need to worry about the President’s statement on Monday on the drug campaign.

But HRW said respect for human rights and respect for human lives were not mutually exclusive.

“On the contrary, one reinforces the other,” said Carlos Conde, researcher of HRW’s Asia division.

Conde called out the President for “smearing” human rights defenders who were demanding that the government follow the rule of law.

‘Twisted logic’

In a statement, the rights advocacy group Karapatan said the President showed “twisted logic” in his Sona.

“Mr. Duterte is an insufferable psychopath who has developed a taste for killing poor people,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.

Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines, called the President a “tyrant” when he declared that his bloody war on drugs would be relentless.

In a statement, Sison accused the President of promoting “the worst of criminality” among policemen, who are suspected of being behind the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.

‘No distinction’

Lawyer Jacqueline de Guia, spokesperson for the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), said that while the agency was disappointed with the President’s vow to continue the brutal war on drugs, it lauded his focus on other aspects of life promoting human rights.

“We are supportive of all the rights he has urged Congress to advance while we remain steadfast that the campaign against drugs should not be at the expense of human lives,” said De Guia, chief of the CHR public affairs office.

The CHR cited the President’s pledge for government to give attention to other issues, including protection of migrant worker rights, the environment, peace, internal displacement, right to health and decent standard of living.

The President’s speech just demonstrated that there was no distinction between human rights and human lives, De Guia said in a statement. —REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS, DJ YAP, LEILA SALAVERRIA, AIE BALAGTAS SEE, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE, MELVIN GASCON, JAYMEE T. GAMIL AND DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.