Karapatan asks UNHRC to hold those behind PH drug killings accountable

MANILA, Philippines—A Philippine human rights group appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to heed Iceland’s call to investigate unwarranted killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody antidrug campaign and take to task those behind them.

Christina Palabay, secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan (Right), said UNHRC should “push for accountability.”

Palabay, in a statement issued by her group on Friday (July 5), said Duterte and enforcers of his antidrug campaign should be held accountable.

“We demand justice for all the victims” of killings in relation to the antidrug campaign of Duterte, who had vowed a more merciless war on illegal drugs and had thrown expletives at human rights groups and other critics of the rising death toll in his campaign.

Palabay said as Duterte enters the halfway mark of his rule, “criminality remains” and only the poor are killed either in police operations that often turn bloody or gangland-style street executions.

Karapatan condemned the death of 3-year-old Myca Ulpina, who was shot in a crossfire between police officers and suspected drug pushers during a buy-bust operation in Rodriguez, Rizal on June 30.

READ: 3-year-old girl hit in drug buy-bust crossfire dies

Karapatan said the killing of Ulpina showed “tragic reflection of irreparable damage and loss to Filipino families.”

The group said Duterte’s drug war remained relentless in carrying out an “ineffective and militarist policy.”

“Despite the public outrage on Duterte’s war against illegal drugs that has killed thousands of individuals in police operations and vigilante-style killings, this regime seems relentless in pushing for an ineffective, militarist policy,” Palabay said.

Recent records from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed that the drug war death toll has reached 6,600 from July 2016 to May 2019. Human Rights Watch,  a New York-based group, estimated the number of dead to be at least 20,000 already since Duterte came to power (Editor: Tony Bergonia)

READ: 6,600 killed in war vs drugs from July 2016 to May 2019 — PNP