U.S. Congress should urge Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to stop extra-judicial killings in the Philippines amid his administration’s war on drugs, a human rights activist told American lawmakers Thursday.
In a hearing by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ human rights body, iDefend spokesperson Ellecer Carlos urged U.S. lawmakers to “make a clear statement again calling on President Duterte to stop the killings, [inciting] violence, [and] stop dehumanizing drug dependents.”
“[Stop] threatening human rights defenders, enable the Philippine National Police (PNP) to return to the rule of law and respect for due process, and undertake affirmative action to resolve the vigilante killings,” said Carlos.
Phelim Kine, deputy director for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, echoed Carlos, saying “foreign pressure works and that’s something the United States can bring to bear in spades.”
Kine also expressed support for a U.S. Senate bill that proposes to restrict firearms aid to the Philippines due to the alleged human rights abuses.
Amnesty International senior crisis adviser Matthew Wells said in the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing that Washington should help ensure Philippine authorities “reorient their drug policies on a model based on protection of health and human rights rathan than a punitive approach…to kill the problem away.”
“As one of the oldest and most important allies of the Philippines, the U.S. has a unique position of influence,” he said, adding that U.S. Congress can help ensure reform in the PNP and “[end] impunity of police officers who commit or oversee unlawful killings.”
All three recommended a public health-centered approach to resolve the drug problem in the Philippines.
U.S. lawmaker James McGovern (D-MA) opened the hearing and said the Philippines’ war on drugs is “not necessary.”
“What is going in the Philippines is not necessary. No other country comes to mind where people are assassinated in the streets in the name of drugs,” said McGovern, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
Re-published from ABS-CBN News
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