Rody’s antidrug drive a war vs poor, rights groups say

Human rights groups and the former head of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expressed alarm on Thursday over the rising body count in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, saying it was turning out to be “a war versus the poor.”

In a press conference, the Citizens Council for Human Rights (CCHR)—a coalition of nongovernment and peoples organizations, human rights lawyers, the religious sector and academe—urged President Duterte to take steps to check the growing number of drug and criminal suspects killed in so-called police operations or found dead in the streets.

According to the CCHR, those suspected of involvement in illegal drugs, mostly poor individuals, are denied due process with some even “executed before they can publicly defend themselves in court.”

It suggested that instead of killing these defenseless individuals, the government “should address the roots of rampant crime and the extensive drug trade in the country as well as other social problems by stamping out poverty and social idleness.”

The CCHR’s observations were supported by former CHR Chair Etta Rosales who said that killings, including the plan to restore the death penalty, would not make drugs and crime go away but would “just hit the poor and the defenseless.”

In a statement, she noted that the antidrug operations conducted by the police targeted poor and defenseless individuals. “You don’t see raids taking place in rich subdivisions yet drug lords are known to live luxurious lives,” Rosales said.

She called for a probe, saying that “such investigations enable an environment to collectively temper this increasing pitch for bloodlust that instinctively celebrates these deaths rather than pause for compassion and concern.”

Rosales and the CCHR both called for individuals suspected of involvement in drugs to be given the right to due process and to reintegrate into their communities.

“We must invest in a society of compassion and recognition that we are our brothers’ keepers, not in a future where those with less in life are dead, just because it is easier that way,” she said.

Based on the CCHR’s count, the government’s declaration of an all-out war against drugs has already claimed the lives of 251 people and “still counting” from May 10 to July 13. The group said the rise was “too alarming to be ignored,” noting that from January 1 to May 29, there were only 39 reported deaths due to drug-related violence.

“We believe that summary execution methods [which] violate the right to life and to due process will not solve the country’s crime and illegal drugs problem. Instead, it will only exacerbate the problem of lawlessness and violence in the country,” said CCHR convenor and Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates chair Max de Mesa.

According to De Mesa, the killings were worrisome because these were “prompted by the pronouncements of the President,” noting that even before Mr. Duterte assumed office, he had urged the police and ordinary citizens to kill those involved in illegal drugs.

Citing a need to put an immediate stop to the killings, the CCHR said this could be done by encouraging lawmen to follow the criminal justice system. It also asked local government leaders to stop using “dehumanizing” methods in the war against crime and drugs such as public shaming.