Roque hits Human Rights Watch for ‘playing blind, deaf, dumb’

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has “a penchant for playing blind, deaf and dumb.”

This was how Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque slammed on Sunday the international organization’s alleged refusal to acknowledge the efforts of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration in fighting abuses of scalawag cops.

The statement came after the HRW’s latest remark criticizing the government’s lack of “genuine efforts to seek accountability for drug war abuses.”

“The government has made no genuine efforts to seek accountability for drug war abuses,” Param-Preet Singh, associate director of HRW’s International Justice Program, said last Friday.

“There have been no successful prosecutions or convictions of police implicated in summary killings despite compelling evidence of such abuses,” she added.

READ: HRW exec accuses PH gov’t of faking sincerity to resolve drug war abuses

Roque said these remarks from the HRW were “simply off track.”

“Perhaps this HRW must be reminded that an entire police force in Caloocan was relieved because of alleged abuses, and the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) was designated to be the lead agency in the government anti-drug operation,” he said.

“Lest we forget, as much as due process governs the cases of alleged victims, the same must likewise be accorded to state agents accused of being perpetrators,” he added. /je