Palace: EU concerns over possible rights violations in drug war being addressed

Malacañang on Monday maintained that the Duterte administration was addressing European Union concerns of possible human rights violations in the killings during police anti-drug operations.

Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles issued the statement in response to the EU Parliament adopting a Resolution "strongly condemning thousands of extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations related to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and all intimidation and violence against those seeking to expose allegations of such abuses in the country such as human rights activists, journalists, and critics."

The EU Parliament also said that failure to address these issues on the part of the Philippines should prompt the EU to consider revoking trade privileges given to the Philippines under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), a mechanism that gives developing countries the privilege of exporting zero-duty merchandise to EU-member states.

"We wish to reiterate that the government has already taken steps to address the concerns raised by the EU parliament–– issues that we believe are being used by the detractors of the Duterte administration to color the perceptions of Filipino voters who in May will choose the country’s next leaders," Nograles said.

"It bears stressing that an existing dialogue mechanism with the EU is already in place, and we have expressed on numerous occasions our willingness to work and cooperate with the EU in order to shed light on the concerns they have raised. The actions taken by the government in this regard are a clear demonstration of our compliance with conventions on human rights, labor, and good governance, among others," Nograles added.

The Duterte administration is facing possible International Criminal Court (ICC) scrutiny on the government's alleged crimes against humanity in the context of police anti-drug operations.

The ICC probe, which was deferred in November 2021 at the request of the Philippine government, stemmed from the complaints of families whose loved ones were killed in the drug war and human rights advocates.

The ICC initially authorized a drug war probe in September 2021 for alleged crimes against humanity or murder given that "available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy, within the meaning of Article 7(1) and (2)(a) of the [Rome] Statute [that established ICC]."

Based on government records, at least 7,000 individuals were killed during police anti-drug operations since President Duterte assumed office on June 30, 2016.

The complainants before the ICC, however, argued that were as many as  30,000 victims if those drug suspects killed by supposed vigilante squads were included. — DVM, GMA News