Human rights sidelined in presidential race: Amnesty

MANILA, Philippines - Presidential candidates have ignored human rights in their campaigns despite the violence which plagues the country, Amnesty International (AI) said yesterday.

The rights group spoke out as a survey was released showing the frontrunner for the 2016 poll was a mayor dubbed “Dirty Harry” who has openly boasted of personally killing criminals.

AI Philippines said it asked the five leading presidential hopefuls to give them a copy of their human rights agenda but none complied, despite repeated requests.

“Unfortunately, this challenge has not been accepted as Amnesty International Philippines has yet to receive word from the offices of presidential candidates regarding their human rights platform,” the rights group said.

AI Philippines said President Aquino’s preferred successor, Mar Roxas, and rivals Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Santiago have not provided any policy details  platform on human rights.

The country sees numerous killings of journalists, political  figures and petty criminals.

A survey released yesterday by the respected Social Weather Stations group revealed Duterte, the longtime mayor of Davao, leads his rivals in the race to succeed Aquino.

In a report earlier this year, Human Rights Watch said Duterte’s so-called  “Davao Death Squad” had killed more than 1,000 people during his tenure as mayor of Davao City.

AI Philippines campaign coordinator Wilnor  Papa said his group has long called for an investigation of Duterte but “the government seems to look the other way.”

He said the popularity of Duterte and his anti-crime message should not detract from the need to promote human rights.

“We do understand where the Filipino people are coming from... but we don’t believe that to get peace and order, you need extra-judicial executions, you don’t need short cuts (to due process),” he said.

AI Philippines also rated Aquino, who ends his six-year term next year, poorly, saying he had made little progress in ending extra-judicial killings, reining in the police and military and stopping torture by the security services.