MANILA, Philippines — On International Human Rights Day yesterday, Malacañang vowed to lift less fortunate Filipinos out of poverty, saying this is the best way to uphold human rights amid criticisms over the administration’s alleged endorsement of summary executions in its war on illegal drugs.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Duterte administration works hard to promote the best interest of every Filipino, especially the poor, the marginalized and most vulnerable.
He said vulnerable sectors include women and children in crisis situations, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, migrant workers, older persons, people and communities displaced by natural and human-induced calamities.
“The best way to do this is to ensure government efficiency and effectiveness that will translate to every Filipino getting a fighting chance to overcome poverty, to uplift one’s status in society and to live a life with higher dignity,” Roque said in a statement.
“That direction is what inspires the government’s compliance with its human rights obligations. As a Nobel Peace Prize winner once said, ‘poverty is the absence of human rights,’” he added, quoting Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
He described the Philippines as an “active member” of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), an intergovernmental body composed of 47 states.
“This government shall strive to bestow upon every Filipino an equal share in the nation’s progress,” the spokesman said.
“And we are pleased that this direction has been accepted by no less than the highest peer review body in the world on all matters of human rights, which is the UNHRC, when it unanimously accepted and commended the Outcome Report on the Philippines’ Universal Periodic Review this year,” he added.
Thousands of suspected drug offenders have died since President Duterte launched a brutal campaign against illegal drugs, a campaign promise that helped him win the 2016 presidential race.
An international non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has repeatedly assailed the Duterte regime for its supposed failure to make genuine efforts to seek accountability on the alleged abuses in the anti-drug campaign.
Roque, a human rights lawyer, described the group’s criticism as “off track.”
“HRW has a penchant for playing blind, deaf and dumb, refusing to acknowledge the efforts of the administration in addressing alleged abuses of scalawag policemen,” Roque said.
“Lest we forget, as much as due process governs the cases of alleged victims, the same must likewise be accorded to state agents accused of being perpetrators,” he added.
Roque cited the relief of the entire police force in Caloocan City, which was tagged in the killing of two teenage suspects last August.
He also chided detained opposition Sen. Leila de Lima, who accused him of defending Duterte’s alleged human rights violations.
De Lima, a fierce critic of the President, made the statement after Roque had urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) not to meddle with the Philippines’ efforts to address crimes, terrorism and illegal drugs.
“We should no longer give credence to anything that comes from Senator Leila de Lima as this is from a polluted source, who was accused of drug trafficking by at least 13 witnesses. We consider her views as rather pathetic attempts to remain relevant and in the headlines, hence, these should not be taken seriously,” Roque said.
Roque stressed that the ICC could only intervene if the state is unwilling or unable to prosecute crimes.
Duterte slammed
Sen. Risa Hontiveros called on Filipinos to defend human rights, saying these are not items of convenience but are matters of principle.
Over the past year, the administration has failed its commitment to promote and secure the people’s rights, she said.
“Through a bloody war on drugs that has victimized the poor and the helpless, through a sustained language of violence and sexism, and the deliberate stifling of dissent and critical thinking, this government has traded human rights away for a false promise of order and security,” she said.
Duterte has also treated those who would choose to defend human rights with contempt, even threatening them with violence, Hontiveros said.
“We need to be better than this. State power exists to further and protect individual rights. And when this power is used to bludgeon people into silence and submission, then lines in the sand must be drawn to restore the state back to its people,” she said.
“Because when the institutions we build to protect us are used against us, we prove the tyrants and despots wrong and take them back,” she added.
Various militant groups also held protest rallies yesterday to denounce the drug war and other alleged human rights abuses of the administration. –Alexis Romero, Paolo Romero, Ding Cervantes, Romina Cabrera