PHL human rights crisis under Duterte at its worst since Marcos —HRW

International watchdog organization Human Rights Watch said President Rodrigo Duterte has “plunged” the human rights crisis in the Philippines to its worst since the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“President Rodrigo Duterte has plunged the Philippines into its worst human rights crisis since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s,” prefaced HRW in its section on the Philippines for its global report on human rights in 2017.

On the whole, the report said the Philippines made an "especially brazen and deadly example of a populist challenge to human rights."

The group, which has constantly criticized the Duterte government’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, reiterated its claim that the drug war has killed 12,000 mostly poor people, some children.

In contrast, government figures as of September 16, 2017 show that 3,850 people have died in police anti-drug operations since July 1, 2016, when Duterte took office.

This number is separate from the “drug-related deaths” numbering 2,290. Police also said 85 among their ranks perished in such operations in the same period.

Reacting to the latest HRW criticism, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said: "That's fictional."

'Declined but not stopped'

The HRW said the killings have "declined but not stopped" since the President tasked the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to take over the Philippine National Police's (PNP) lead role in the drug war in October last year. The PNP resumed anti-drug operations two months later in December.

Duterte’s war on drugs has targeted not only petty drug dealers but also critics and political enemies, the report also said.

It cited Senator Leila de Lima, who is still in detention over what the group called “politically-motivated” drug charges, as well as the Commission on Human Rights, and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Agnes Callamard.

“President Duterte has not only resisted calls to end his brutal ‘drug war,’ but has used populist rhetoric to disparage the brave activists who have been investigating and denouncing his cruel campaign,” said Phelim Kine, HRW deputy Asia director, in a press release.

“Since Duterte will never undertake a serious investigation into the ‘war on drugs,’ it’s up to the United Nations to support an international investigation and bring the mass killings to a stop,” he added.

An HRW investigation found that the Philippine National Police has “repeatedly” carried out extrajudicial killings of drug suspects and then claimed they did it in self-defense, the report said.

“Police have planted guns, spent ammunition, and drug packets on victims’ bodies to implicate them in drug activities,” it said.

“Masked gunmen taking part in killings appeared to be working closely with police, casting doubt on government claims that most killings have been committed by vigilantes or rival drug gang,” it added.

The report also described how the country fared in 2017 in terms of children’s rights, attacks on journalists, the country’s rapidly growing HIV epidemic, discrimination due to gender identity, the battle in Marawi, and the government’s relationship with other countries.

Duterte is known for his profanity-laced tirades against bodies and countries that are historically allied with the Philippines but are now critical of his war on drugs, such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States.

Moreover, the Securities and Exchange Commission has recently revoked the license of multimedia news site Rappler, which produces reports critical of Duterte, in a move widely seen as an attack on press freedom.

Duterte has also lambasted the Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN for supposedly being owned by “oligarchs.” — with Trisha Macas/MDM/RSJ, GMA News