Palace hits Human Rights Watch for saying first year of Duterte a “human rights calamity”

June 29, 2017

Malacanang slammed on Thursday Human Rights Watch for saying the first year of President Rodrigo Duterte in office was a "human rights calamity." "We don't feel good about the comments of the Human Rights Watch," said Presidential Communications Office Assistant Secretary Ana Maria Paz Banaag in a press briefing Thursday. According to Human Rights Watch, the Duterte government's "murderous war on drugs," drug-related overcrowding of jails, and harassment and prosecution of drug war critics has caused a steep decline in respect for basic rights since Duterte’s inauguration on June 30, 2016. It cited the security forces and “unidentified gunmen” have killed at least 7,000 suspected drug users and dealers since July 1, including 3,116 killings by police. Banaag said the HRW "should not brush aside all the programs, especially the enforcement side" of the campaign. "How many operations have been conducted by the enforcement agencies, anti-drug agencies? It is not a joke to enforce 62,000 anti-drug operations in a year. That's so much sacrifice," she said. She cited the estimated 1.3 million drug addicts and pushers who "surrendered" to the authorities since the start of the campaign. "So the government is not sitting down, watching lives being wasted just like --- just this way," Banaag said. Duterte, in his previous speeches, said that the terrorism in Mindanao was also supported by proceeds from illegal drugs. Asked on the success of the administration on its campaign against narcotics amid the President's acknowledgement that the the Islamic State-inspired Maute Terror Group in Marawi City had used the drug trade to amass funds, Banaag said, "it is up for our people to assess how they see it." But she said the government enforcers could not address the drug problem alone at the same time. "They cannot do it all at one time. In as much as they wanted to, they could not practically cope up with it. And as we say, they always say the government is not sitting down. They are working so hard. They’re risking their lives, their limbs to be able to hopefully give better lives for the next generation of Filipino," she said. Celerina Monte/DMS