RELATIVES of victims of summary executions in the course of the Duterte antidrug war and the counterinsurgency campaign have filed cases before the joint monitoring committee of the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF).
The filing of the cases before the government-NDF Joint Monitoring Committee came as the Rise Up for Life and for Rights (RULR) expressed its “deep concern for the onslaught of senseless killings that have gripped poor communities throughout the nation.”
RULR wants the killings in the antidrug war, which intensified as a result of Duterte’s announcement that he will kill all 6 million drug users and pushers before his term ends in 2022, and vowed to absolve all those accused of perpetrating summary executions, to be taken up during the third round of the government-NDF peace negotiations slated in Rome from January 19 to 25.
Duterte also dismissed the killings of people with no involvement in the drug trade as “collateral damage,” and expressed no remorse for the deaths caused by vigilante groups.
“As we seek appropriate venues to bring these drug-related killings to sober investigation, we recognize that the respect of the human dignity and human rights of our kababayan is an essential component of building a just and lasting peace in our nation; therefore, Church leaders urge the government and the NDF to include in their peace talks this urgent matter of drug-related killings with impunity that have escalated to epidemic proportions,” RULR said in a statement released by its spokesman, Fr. Gilbert Billena.
RULR said Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), which was signed by the govenment and the NDF, provides a framework for addressing this concern, since the accord’s objective is “to guarantee the protection of human rights to all Filipinos under all circumstances, especially the workers, peasants and other poor people.”
“With this concrete avenue for action, we are joining with victims of human-rights violations and their families in filing cases against the government through the joint committee that monitors the implementation of CARHRIHL. We strongly believe that these drug-related killings must be prioritized in the upcoming peace talks as a significant threat and obstacle to building a just and lasting peace, especially in financially disfranchised [poor] communities,” RULR added.
It asked the government and the NDF to investigate the rampant drug-related killings being conducted with impunity under the thinly veiled state sanction of a so-called war against drugs.
The National Police has openly admitted to killing more than 2,000 persons in drug operations since Duterte took office, while multiple news outlets put the total number killed in drug-related incidents at around 6,300.
“This high incidence of killings supports firsthand accounts of witnesses in underscoring that police and alleged state-sanctioned killers should be accused of human-rights violations and extrajudicial killings in poor communities. Under the current climate of impunity, where perpetrators are not held accountable for their crimes and violations of human rights, these killings will continue unabated, if not further escalate. We strongly believe that the peace talks between the government and the NDF can be a place where this urgent concern is raised,” RULR added.
“We, as much as anyone, want the dismantling of drug syndicates and the obliteration of the illicit drug trade in the Philippines. Building peace requires that we address the roots of the problems of the people—drug use proliferates, at least, in part, because of a lack of adequate productive opportunities in poor communities. We believe that the dignity of persons requires that we offer them due process and the opportunity to redeem themselves,” it added.
“We believe that the vulnerable poor, marginalized and exploited sectors of society must be afforded every respect of their human rights—for these are the rights of the toiling majority. For this reason, we lodge our urgent appeal for the government and NDF to take up the crisis of drug-related killings as a matter of CARHRIHL. Upholding the rights of the people in our beloved homeland is essential for building a just and lasting peace,” the group also said in the statement.
“With hopeful prayers for a successful peace talks to be held January 19-25, 2017 in Rome, Italy, we fervently appeal to the government and the NDF to act to stop the drug-related killings, further implement CARHRIHL as a mechanism for upholding human rights, address the roots of the armed conflict in the Philippines, and ardently pursue the attainment of a just and lasting peace for the Filipino people,” the statement added.