‘No truth to AI claim PH a dangerous place’

Malacañang on Friday brushed off an allegation by Amnesty International (AI) Philippines that President Duterte had made the country “a far more dangerous place” to live in.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the decline in the number of common crimes and the support of the majority of Filipinos for the Duterte administration’s war on drugs belied the rights organization’s allegation.

“There is no truth to the statement of Amnesty International that President Duterte has made the Philippines ‘a far more dangerous place,’” he said.

In a statement on Thursday, AI Philippines director Jose Noel Olano said “impunity and lack of accountability have been shamelessly displayed at almost all levels” of the Duterte administration.

“It is not only Duterte’s speeches about keeping our country safe that has become mere lip service but in his audacity to smear human rights, he has rolled back on hard-won human rights protections that are supposed to keep everyone safe, in the first place,” Olano said.

Tagle admits pain

“Abandoning human rights values and principles is a failure on his part and comes with a huge cost of essentially guaranteeing that no one can ever be safe because the country has become a far more dangerous place,” he added.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Manila archbishop, admitted to being pained whenever the Philippines or being a Filipino was criticized because of the apparent disregard for human rights and the rule of law in the country.

In his speech at the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization at Cuneta Astrodome on Thursday, Tagle urged Filipinos to show to the world, “as the country’s true representatives,” their dignity as a people.

Roque cited a Social Weather Stations survey, which showed that victims of common crimes fell to a record low of 6.1 percent in 2017, while the annual average for property crimes were at a low of 5.6 percent last year.

Legitimate operations

He also cited a Pulse Asia survey which showed that nearly nine out of 10 Filipinos, or 88 percent, supported the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

“We reiterate that the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs is conducted through legitimate police enforcement operations, and deaths arising from these are due to the drug personalities’ violent resistance to lawful apprehensions,” Roque said.

He added that the President, a lawyer and former prosecutor, had previously prosecuted murder as a capital offense.

“He, therefore, does not and will never condone extralegal killings, as he maintains zero tolerance for erring policemen who digress from standard protocols and abuse their power,” Roque said. —WITH A REPORT FROM JOVIC YEE