PHL human rights crisis deepened in 2018 under Duterte —HRW world report

The human rights crisis in the Philippines "deepened" in 2018 under President Rodrigo Duterte, Human Rights Watch said in its annual World Report released on Thursday.

The group took particular note of Duterte's announcement that the country would withdraw from the International Criminal Court in March in response to the court's move to open up a probe into the killings related to the administration's drug war.

"The Duterte administration’s 'war on drugs' continued in 2018 and expanded into areas outside the capital, Metro Manila, including to the provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and the cities of Cebu and General Santos," HRW said.

The report cited 4,948 suspected drug users and dealers who died during police operations from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2018, which does not count "thousands of others killed by unidentified gunmen" classified by the government as “homicides under investigation.”

The HRW said the exact number of fatalities was "difficult to ascertain" due to the government's "failure" to disclose documents on the drug war.  

"It has issued contradictory statistics and, in the case of these 'homicides under investigation', stopped releasing the figures altogether," the HRW said.

In the keynote essay for the report, HRW executive director Kenneth Roth wrote that Duterte "encouraged more summary executions, supposedly of drug suspects, but often of people guilty of no more than being poor young men."

The report did take note of "a rare triumph of accountability in the Philippines," referring to the guilty verdict handed to three cops involved in the murder of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in August 2017.

It also cited a decision of a Bulacan court last September which convicted ex-Army Major General Jovito Palparan and two other military men for the kidnapping and illegal detention of student activists Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.

Last December, the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur Michel Forst had called on the Philippine government to "end immediately all forms of violations against human rights defenders, including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances."

This was deemed "reckless" and "irresponsible" by Malacañang, with Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo saying in a statement that the Philippine government is “fed up” with the supposed practice by detractors of using the UN as a platform to “parrot baseless criticisms of local interest groups who are supported by resentful politicians belonging to the opposition.”

The latest World Report from the HRW brought several other human rights-related issues to light, including the Duterte government's alleged efforts to silence critics "via various means."

It referred to the situation of detained senator Leila de Lima, ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who are some of President's most vocal critics.

The organization also scored the administration for the continued "attacks on journalists" in the country.

Specifically, the report said the government "ratcheted up its attack on media freedom" in January last year, referring to the threat to close critical media outlet Rappler, which was followed by the filing of tax evasion cases against its CEO and founder Maria Ressa.

The HRW also noted the continued killing of journalists in 2018, as six media members in different parts of the country have been murdered by unidentified gunmen. 

When it came to children's rights, the HRW was particularly taken by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency's (PDEA) announcement last June wherein it proposed mandatory drug testing for schoolchildren starting in the fourth grade.

"Imposing drug testing on schoolchildren when Philippine police are summarily killing alleged drug users endangers children should they fail such a drug test," the report said.

It added that mandatory testing may also "violate children’s right to bodily integrity, constitute arbitrary interference with their privacy and dignity," and may "deter children from attending school for reasons unrelated to any potential drug use."

Moreover, as the Philippines "faces the fastest-growing epidemic of HIV in Asia," the HRW held the government responsible for the continued increase in cases.

Citing information from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the report said there are "an estimated 68,000 Filipinos living with HIV" and that the number of new cases had "jumped from 4,400 in 2010 to 12,000 in 2017."

This increase, the HRW said, "has been attributed to government policy failures to respond to the epidemic."

Further, the organization recalled President Duterte's remark last February wherein he suggested to a group of returning OFWs that they avoid using condoms because they “aren’t pleasurable.” 

The HRW also took note of stalled legislative measures in Philippine Congress which seek to protect the the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.—JST/ LDF, GMA News