By Jodesz Gavilan in Manila

The confirmation of charges hearings at the International Criminal Court (ICC) kicked off on Monday this week setting the stage for four days of high-stakes arguments over former President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war.

The team of prosecutors, victims’ representatives, and the defence are laying out their cases aiming to prove — or challenge — whether Duterte’s actions warrant trial.

After this pre-trial hearing, the ICC judges may decide whether there is enough evidence to move forward to a full trial, a process that could define Duterte’s legacy and signal accountability.

• READ MORE: Other Rodrigo Duterte reports

The past few days have been tense, with prosecutors presenting the systematic anti-illegal drug campaign that led to the thousands of deaths under Duterte, while victims’ representatives described the human toll in stark terms.

The defence team, so far, has painted a portrait of a president who was tough, outspoken, and misunderstood, but whose actions, they argued, were within the law.

Rappler has highlighted some of the most striking statements from the sessions. This will be updated as the confirmation of charges progresses and ends tomorrow.

Day 1 — February 23, 2026

Read the highlights from Day 1 at Rappler

“Mr Duterte’s criminal plan and his intent were no secret. He not only shared them with his co-perpetrators and members of the [Davao Death Squad], but also made them abundantly clear to the general public in the numerous public statements that he made time and again.

“His intent and knowledge are shown by the multiple statements that he made throughout his mayoral and presidential tenure promising to reduce crimes by killing alleged criminals, promoting the common plan, and urging the police and even members of the public to kill alleged criminals.”

— Deputy ICC prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang on how Duterte’s public speeches demonstrate his intent and knowledge in promoting drug war killings

“The arrest and detention of Mr Duterte has not stopped impunity in the Philippines. The virus of impunity that he spread all over the country has become a cancer that has metastasised, infecting millions of Filipinos. Mr. Duterte has created clones of himself. He converted millions of peace-loving citizens into bloodthirsty disciples who have become converts to the belief that violence and killings are valid solutions to societal problems.

“The killings masterminded by Mr Duterte continue to have consequences for the victims, even to this day, because of his clones. These mini-Dutertes harass, threaten, or commit outright violence against the victims and their families.”

— Lawyer Joel Butuyan, ICC-appointed common legal representative for victims, on the culture of impunity in the Philippines and the continuing threats faced by families of drug war victims

“If the charges are not confirmed in this case, one of the gravest concerns of the victims is that Mr Duterte will return to the Philippines as a conquering hero. He will resume preaching his gospel of impunity. In fact, if Mr Duterte could threaten to slap the judges of this court — which he did while he was president — this chamber should imagine the kind of terror-filled threats and the violent actions that can easily be used against the victims if the suspect walks free from this court.”

— Lawyer Joel Butuyan, ICC-appointed common legal representative for victims, on the potential risks if Duterte is not tried in court and punished.

“Rodrigo Duterte was, and will always remain, a unique phenomenon. His style of statesmanship was novel and unpalatable to many. His expletives and hyperbole grated, while his honesty and wild popularity irritated. He spoke openly from the heart, sincerely and truthfully. And what a contrast between him and his successor in Malacañang. For [Duterte], his word was his word, and the people knew it. For President Bongbong, his was for the wind and the people will not forget it.”

— Lead defence counsel Nicholas Kaufman on Duterte’s style of leadership and his contrast with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“[Duterte]’s rhetoric was calculated to arouse fear and obedience, to instill fear in their hearts, and to inculcate a respect for the law in their minds. Nothing more, nothing less. That was his intent, and it was not criminal.”

— Lead defence counsel Nicholas Kaufman on Duterte’s use of rhetoric to enforce law and order.

“The reality is that Mr Duterte’s message was clear, and it was understood by the perpetrators, and it was followed. That message was: commit murder at my direction, and I will protect you, I will pay you, I will promote you. That’s what happened.

“And I’ll say this as well, your Honours, for purposes of this confirmation hearing, disregard every speech ever made by Mr Duterte. Throw them all out. There is still ample evidence of substantial grounds based on the other evidence which we have put on our list of evidence. And the evidence as a whole, when you weigh it together, will show that what [Nicholas Kaufman] said is not correct, that Mr Duterte intended for his subordinates to follow the law and that he was interested and that his speeches were simply bluster.”

— Senior trial lawyer Julian Nicholls of the ICC prosecution team, on why evidence beyond his public speeches demonstrates intent to commit killings.

Day 2 — February 24, 2026

Read the highlights from Day 2 at Rappler

“Mr Duterte goes on to comment on extrajudicial killings. And as he does so, your Honours will note the nonchalant, casual manner in which he draws his finger across his throat . . .  And in this opulent, gilded presentation room, the officials laugh along with their president while he boasts about his skills in extrajudicial killing. Outside, on the streets of the Philippines, the bodies pile up.”

— Lawyer Edward Jeremy of the ICC prosecution team, on the behaviour of Duterte during public speeches that were shown in the confirmation of charges hearing

“And in the face of this public outcry, Mr Duterte was forced to temporarily withdraw police from drug operations . . .  And this led to a reduction in the frequency of killings. In announcing this temporary withdrawal, Mr Duterte sarcastically stated that he hoped that this would satisfy ‘bleeding hearts and the media’. And, in this way, he publicly communicated that this was not a genuine effort to prevent crime, but rather a temporary attempt to placate public criticism. And less than two months later, Mr Duterte decided to once again scale up operations.”

— Lawyer Edward Jeremy of the ICC prosecution team, on Duterte’s response following the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos

“From everything you have heard over the past two days, there can be no doubt about Mr Duterte’s knowledge and intent. He intended that the crimes would be committed and he was aware that they would be committed as a result of implementing the common plan . . .  Mr Duterte knew because he himself established the DDS to kill people. He repeatedly broadcast his intention to implement the common plan nationally if elected president. He made it clear that this would involve killing.

“Once he was president, he moved his trusted co-perpetrators from Davao into key national positions. And as the number of killings rose, Mr Duterte persisted with the common plan. He praised the 32 killings in a one-time big-time operation in Bulacan. He publicly named so-called high-value targets. He promised to protect police and as your Honours have heard, Mr Duterte has admitted to many of these things.”

— Lawyer Robynne Croft of the ICC prosecution team, on the deliberate orchestration of drug war killings and the role of the Davao Death Squad and national officials in executing the common plan.

“We speak for families who cannot be here, mothers who buried their sons, children who lost their parents, the spouses who now raise families alone, and communities that have lived for years under fear and silence and that continue to bear the consequences of violence that swept through their neighborhoods like a storm. These victims appear today before you not as mere statistics or distant figures or images in reports . . . but as human beings whose rights under the Rome Statute have been violated in the most profound ways.”

— Paolina Massida, principal counsel of the Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV), on what the families of drug war victims had to go — and are going — through.

“The shooting could happen immediately, behind closed doors or in the street, or the victims would be taken away by the gunmen, only for shots to be heard minutes later and the body to be discovered by local residents. At times, bodies were dumped elsewhere, sometimes with hands tied or heads wrapped in plastic. Relatives typically found them after being alerted by policemen or by the neighbors.”

— Paolina Massida, OPCV principal counsel, on the pattern of killings during Duterte’s drug war.

“In other cases, victims tried to seek justice. They went to the police, to local officials, to government agencies. They filed reports, they asked for investigation, they begged for answers. Their pleas were ignored, their complaints were dismissed, their testimonies were doubted. In some cases, the very people they approached for help were the same ones involved in the violence. They were left with no path forward. No institution was willing to hear them, no authority was willing to protect them, no system was willing to acknowledge what was happening.”

— Paolina Massida, OPCV principal counsel, on the systemic failure in the Philippines to provide justice or protection for drug war victims.

“The victims have waited years for this moment. They have been silenced, stigmatized, and denied justice in their own country. Today, they stand before you with the hope that justice long denied may finally be within reach. This [ICC] is their last refuge. And today, on their behalf, we ask this chamber to affirm that their suffering matters, that their rights matter, and that the rule of law extends even to the most powerful by confirming all the charges against Mr Duterte and committing him to trial.”

— Paolina Massida, OPCV principal counsel, on the appeal of victims for accountability.

“Mr Duterte’s drug war campaign targeted the very humanity of the victims, of their families, and of their communities. In Filipino, the indirect victims expressed this in one sentence: ‘Inalisan kami ng dangal.’ We were stripped of our dignity.”

— Lawyer Gilbert Andres, ICC-appointed common legal representative for victims, on their dehumanisation and targeting during Duterte’s drug war.

Republished from Rappler with permission.

Dozens of Filipinos and supporters in Aotearoa New Zealand came together in a Black Friday vigil and Rally for Justice in the heart of two cities tonight — Auckland and Christchurch.

They celebrated the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this month to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity over a wave of extrajudicial killings during his six-year presidency in a so-called “war on drugs”.

Estimates of the killings have ranged between 6250 (official police figure) and up to 30,000 (human rights groups) — including 32 in a single day — during his 2016-2022 term and critics have described the bloodbath as a war against the poor.

• READ MORE: Arrested on ICC warrant: What was Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’?
• Philippines ex-president Rodrigo Duterte arrested on ICC warrant – video
• Other Rodrigo Duterte reports

But speakers warned tonight this was only the first step to end the culture of impunity in the Philippines.

Current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator, and his adminstration were also condemned by the protesters.

Introducing the rally with the theme “Convict Duterte! End Impunity!” in Freyberg Square in the heart of downtown Auckland, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan’s Eugene Velasco said: “We demand justice for the thousands killed in the bloody and fraudulent war on drugs under the US-Duterte regime.”

She said they sought to:

• expose the human rights violations against the Filipino people;
• call for Duterte’s accountability; and
• to hold Marcos responsible for continuing this reign of terror against the masses.

Flown to The Hague
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Duterte on March 11. He was immediately arrested on an aircraft at Manila International Airport and flown by charter aircraft to The Hague where he is now detained awaiting trial.

“We welcome this development because his arrest is the result of tireless resistance — not only from human rights defenders but, most importantly, from the families of those who fell victim to Duterte’s extrajudicial killings,” Velasco said.

“These families fought for justice despite the complete lack of support from the Marcos administration.”

Velasco said their their courage and resilience had pushed this case forward — “even in the face of relentless threats and violence from the police and military”.

“‘Shoot them dead!’—this was Duterte’s direct order to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). His death squads carried out these brutal killings with impunity,” Velasco said.

But Duterte was not the only one who must be held accountable, she added.

“We demand the immediate arrest and prosecution of all those who orchestrated and enabled the state-sponsored executions, led by figures like Senator Bato Dela Rosa and Lieutenant-Colonel Jovie Espenido, that led to over 30,000 deaths, the militarisation of 47,587 schools, churches, and public institutions — especially in rural areas — the abductions and killings of human rights defenders, and the continued existence of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC.”

Fake news, red-tagging
Velasco accused this agency of having “used the Filipino people’s taxes to fuel human rights abuses” through the spread of fake news and red-tagging against activists, peasants, trade unionists, and people’s lawyers.

“The fight does not end here,” she said.

“The Filipino people, together with all justice and peace-loving people of Aotearoa New Zealand, will not stop until justice is fully served — not just for the victims, but for all who continue to suffer under the Duterte-Marcos regime, which remains under the grip of US imperialist interests.

“As Filipinos overseas, we must unite in demanding justice, stand in solidarity with the victims of extrajudicial killings, and continue the struggle for accountability.”

Several speakers gave harrowing testimony about the fate of named victims as their photographs and histories were remembered.

Speakers from local political groups, including Green Party MP Francisco Hernandez, and retired prominent trade unionist and activist Robert Reid, also participated.

Reid referenced the ICC arrest issued last November against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Gaza genocide, saying he hoped that he too would end up in The Hague.

Mock corpses surrounded by candles displayed signs — which had been a hallmark of the drug war killings — declaring “Jail Duterte”, “Justice for all victims of human rights” and “Convict Sara Duterte now!” Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte is currently Vice-President and is facing impeachment proceedings.

Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has recalled that 20 journalists were killed during the six-year Philippines presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, a regime marked by fierce repression of the press.

Former president Duterte was arrested earlier this week as part of an International Criminal Court investigation into crimes against humanity linked to his merciless war on drugs. He is now in The Hague awaiting trial.

The watchdog has called on the administration of current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to take strong measures to fully restore the country’s press freedom and combat impunity for the crimes against media committed by Duterte’s regime.

• READ MORE: Rodrigo Duterte, how the powerful turned powerless — by a target
• Duterte makes first appearance before ICC
• Other Philippines media freedom reports

“Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch,” Rodrigo Duterte said in his inauguration speech on 30 June 2016, which set the tone for the rest of his mandate — unrestrained violence against journalists and total disregard for press freedom, said RSF in a statement.

During the Duterte regime’s rule, RSF recorded 20 cases of journalists killed while working.

Among them was Jesus Yutrago Malabanan, shot dead after covering Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war for Reuters.

Online harassment surged, particularly targeting women journalists.

Maria Ressa troll target
The most prominent victim was Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the news site Rappler, who faced an orchestrated hate campaign led by troll armies allied with the government in response to her commitment to exposing the then-president’s bloody war.

Media outlets critical of President Duterte’s authoritarian excesses were systematically muzzled: the country’s leading television network, ABS-CBN, was forced to shut down; Rappler and Maria Ressa faced repeated lawsuits; and a businessman close to the president took over the country’s leading newspaper, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, raising concerns over its editorial independence.

“The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is good news for the Filipino journalism community, who were the direct targets of his campaign of terror,” said RSF’s Asia-Pacific bureau director Cédric Alviani.

The repression carried out during Duterte’s tenure continues to impact on Filipino journalism: investigative journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio has been languishing in prison since her arrest in 2020, still awaiting a verdict in her trial for “financing terrorism” and “illegal possession of firearms” — trumped-up charges that could see her sentenced to 40 years in prison.

With 147 journalists murdered since the restoration of democracy in 1986, the Philippines remains one of the deadliest countries for media workers.

The republic ranked 134th out of 180 in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

Source report from Reporters Without Borders. Pacific Media Watch collaborates with RSF.

A New Zealand-based Filipino solidarity network has welcomed the arrest of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte by Interpol on charges of crimes against humanity on a warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“We congratulate the human rights activists — both from the Philippines and around the world — who held the line and relentlessly pursued justice for Filipino victims of the former Duterte regime,” said the Aotearoa-Philippines Solidarity (APS) in a statement.

“This arrest is a long time coming, with Duterte having been complicit in the extrajudicial killings of activists, trade unionists, indigenous peoples’ advocates, peasants and human rights lawyers since he was president back in 2016.

• READ MORE: Drug war victims’ families celebrate Duterte’s arrest, vow to keep fighting
• Duterte arrested on ICC warrant — what was his ‘war on drugs’?
• Special Rappler coverage: The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
• PHOTOESSAY: Buried in debt only to have their loved ones get a burial — Pacific Journalism Review
• Other Rodrigo Duterte reports

“His brutal and merciless so-called ‘war on drugs’ also led to the deaths of thousands of Filipinos — many of which were not involved in the drug trade at all or were merely drug addicts and low-level drug peddlers.

“Their only ‘crime’ was that they were poor, as documented by many human rights watchdogs that Duterte’s fake ‘drug war’ disproportionately targeted poor Filipinos.”

The APS statement said that Duterte had admitted to these crimes when he faced an inquiry before the Philippines’ House of Representatives in October last year.

“In that hearing, the former president admitted the existence of ‘death squads’ composed of ‘gang members’ and Philippine police personnel who would ‘neutralise’ drug suspects – both when he was president and as mayor of Davao City.

Police ordered to ‘goad suspects’
“He also [revealed] that he [had] instructed members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to goad suspects to fight back or attempt to escape so they would have a reason to kill them.”

The APS noted that all these actions constituted crimes against humanity, the very charge laid against him by the ICC. Since the initial charges were laid against Duterte in 2017 by human rights activists, many had anticipated the day he would finally face justice.

“This arrest is a historic step towards justice and a reminder to all that no one is above the law. The APS extends our best wishes to the bereaved families of those killed during Duterte’s unjust ‘war on drugs’ and also its survivors,” the statement said.

The APS said challenge now was to ensure that justice was meted out by the ICC and Duterte was punished for his crimes.

“Let us not allow this monumental victory slip from our hands and ensure that all evidence against Duterte is brought to light and he faces consequences for the human rights violations he committed against the Filipino people.”

The statement said that Duterte’s arrest also served as a “warning to the US-Marcos regime” that any abuse of their powers and attacks on human rights would not go unpunished.

The continuation of indiscriminate military operations which violated international humanitarian law would also lead to the downfall of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr — who is the son of the 1970s dictator who declared martial law.

Paolo* was just 15 years old when he witnessed the Philippine National Police (PNP) mercilessly kill his father in 2016.

Nearly nine years later, the scales are shifting as Rodrigo Duterte, the man who unleashed death upon his family and thousands of others, now faces the weight of justice before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Finally, naaresto din, [pero] dapat isama si [Senator Ronald dela Rosa], dapat silang panagutin sa dami ng pamilyang inulila nila. (Finally, he’s arrested but Dela Rosa should’ve been with him, they should be held accountable for how many families they left in mourning),” he said.

• READ MORE: Special Rappler coverage: The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
• PHOTOESSAY: Buried in debt only to have their loved ones get a burial — Pacific Journalism Review
• Other Rodrigo Duterte reports

Paolo, then a minor, was also accosted and tortured by Caloocan police — from the same city police who would kill 17-year-old Kian delos Santos less than a year later.

He was threatened not to do anything else or else end up like his father. Paolo carried the threats and the fear over the years, even as he hoped for justice.

This hanging on for hope in the face of devastation was not for nothing.

Duterte was arrested today by Philippine authorities following the issue of a warrant by the ICC in relation to crimes against humanity committed during his violent war on drugs.

The ICC has been investigating the killings under Duterte’s flagship campaign, which led to at least 6252 deaths in police operations alone by May 2022. The number reached between 27,000 to 30,000, including those killed vigilante-style.

The Presidential Communications Office said that the government received from the Interpol an official copy of a warrant of arrest.

Duterte was presented by the Philippine government’s Prosecutor-General with the ICC notification of an arrest over crimes against humanity upon his arrival from Hong Kong on this morning.

Slow but sure step to justice
Paolo is not the only one rejoicing over Duterte’s arrest. Many families, including those from drug war hot spot Caloocan City, see this as the long-awaited step toward the justice they have been denied for years.

When the news broke, Ana* was overcome with joy and thanked God for giving families the strength and unwavering faith to keep fighting for justice. She knew the weight of loss all too well.

In 2017, police stormed into their home in Caloocan City and brutally killed her husband and father-in-law in a single night.

Ana, who was five months pregnant at that time, was caught in the violence and was hit by a stray bullet. She and other victims have since been supported by the In Defence of Human Rights and Dignity Movement.

“Sa wakas, unti-unti nang nakakamit ang hustisya para sa lahat ng biktima (At last, justice is slowly being achieved for all the victims),” she recalled thinking when she read that Duterte had been arrested.

But Ana is wishing for more than just imprisonment for Duterte, even as she welcomed the long-awaited accountability from the former president and his allies.

“Sana din ay aminin niya lahat ng kamalian at humingi siya ng kapatawaran sa lahat ng tao na biktima para matahimik din ang mga kaluluwa ng mga namatay (I hope he also admits to all his wrongdoings and asks for forgiveness from every victim, so that the souls of those who were killed may finally find peace),” she said.

Brutality they endured
For the families, the ICC’s move and the government’s action are an acknowledgment of the brutality they endured. The latest development is also a validation of their grief and provides a glimmer of hope that accountability is finally within reach. After years of being silenced and dismissed, they see this moment as the start of a reckoning they feared would never come.

Celina, whose husband was shot dead in a drug war operation, feels overwhelming joy but is wary that the arrest is just part of a long process at the ICC.

“Ang sabi nga po, mahaba-habang laban ito kaya hindi po sa pag-aresto natatapos ito, bagkus ito ay simula pa lamang ng aming mga laban [at] naniniwala kami at aasa sa kakayahan at suporta na ibinibigay sa amin ng ICC [na] sa huli, mananagot ang dapat managot, maparusahan ang may mga sala,” she said.

(As they say, this is a long battle, so it does not end with the arrest. Rather, this is only the beginning of our fight. We believe in and will rely on the ICC’s capability and support, knowing that in the end, those who must be held accountable will face justice, and the guilty will be punished.)

It is a stark contrast to the reality they have lived following the deaths of their loved ones. They were constantly under threat from the police who pulled the trigger. Many families had to flee to faraway places, leaving behind their own communities and source of livelihood.

“Nakakaiyak ako, hindi ko alam ang dapat kong maramdaman na sa ilang taon naming ipinaglalaban ay nakamit din namin ang hustisyang aming minimithi (I’m in tears — I don’t know what to feel. After years of fighting, we have finally achieved the justice we have long been yearning for),“ said Betty, whose 44-year-old son and 22-year-old grandson were killed under Duterte’s drug war.

For Jane Lee, the arrest only underscores the glaring disparity between the powerful and the powerless.

“Mabuti pa siya, inaresto ng mga kapulisan. Ang aming mga kaanak, pinatay agad,” she said. “Napakalaki ng pagkakaiba sa pagitan ng makapangyarihan at ordinaryong taong tulad namin.”

(At least he was arrested by the police. Our loved ones were killed on the spot. The difference between the powerful and ordinary people like us is enormous.)

Lee’s husband, Michael, was gunned down by unidentified men in May 2017, leaving her to raise their three children alone. Since then, she has volunteered for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a group composed mostly of widows and mothers who remain steadfast in demanding justice for drug war victims.

Collective rage
Families from Rise Up in Cebu also voiced their collective rage against Duterte who ordered killings from the presidential pulpit for six years. They hope that Duterte will feel the same pain they felt when their loved ones were forcibly taken away from them.

This afternoon, Duterte condemned the alleged violation of due process following his arrest. His allies are also echoing this messaging, calling the arrest unlawful.

His longtime aide, Senator Bong Go, Go, tried to access Duterte in Villamor Air Base, asking the guards to let him deliver pizza since they hadn’t eaten yet.

“Katiting lang iyan sa ginawa mo sa amin na sinira mo ang aming buhay at hanapbuhay dahil sa iyong pekeng war on drugs,” the families of drug war victims in Cebu said. “Wala kang karapatan na kumuha ng buhay ng iba [kasi] Diyos lang may karapatan kaya sa ginawa mo, maniningil ang taumbayan lalo na kaming mga pamilya ng mga naging biktima.”

(That is nothing compared to what you did to us. You destroyed our lives and livelihood because of your fake war on drugs. You have no right to take another person’s life; only God has that right. Because of what you have done, the people will demand justice, especially we, the families of the victims.)

There is still no clear information on what comes next, whether Duterte will be immediately transferred to the International Criminal Court headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, or if legal battles will delay the process.

But Mila*, whose 17-year-old nephew was killed by police in Quezon City in 2018, hopes for one thing if the former president finds himself in a detention cell soon: “Sana huwag na siya lumaya (I hope he is never set free).” 

Republished from Rappler with permission.

Those spooked by the presence of a senior Central Intelligence Agency official in Fiji this week have nothing to fear.

At least, this was the view of Acting Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica as he hinted at the possibility of using the CIA’s “global knowledge and expertise” in the fight against drugs.

He said he met the CIA’s Deputy Director David Cohen on Tuesday in Suva to discuss areas of mutual interest.

• READ MORE: CIA in town – deputy director meets Fiji officials
• Fiji court revokes bail for 13 in major drug busts
• Multi-million dollar hard drug busts in Nadi by Fiji police

They exchanged ideas on how both countries could benefit from each other.

“I’ve met him as the Acting Prime Minister, so it was a broad conversation around the international environment and the fact that we are becoming more and more of a transit point for drugs,” Kamikamica said.

There is a possibility of Fiji working with the CIA in its fight against drugs, said Kamikamica.

The CIA is the US government’s foreign intelligence service that gathers national security information from around the world.

‘Think about their expertise’
In response to questions from The Fiji Times, Kamikamica did not specify the nature of his discussions with Cohen.

“However, think about the security apparatus the Central Intelligence Agency has,” he said.

“The global knowledge and expertise they have.”

Asked why he discussed these areas of mutual interest when they fell under the ambit of the US State Department, Kamikamica said he also met other officials of the US government

“I also met the deputy Secretary of State and Ambassador at Large for cybersecurity separately in my office,” he said.

The developments of the past few days also gave Kamikamica an opportunity to allay potential public fear and disquiet over Cohen’s visit.

In response to concerns raised on social media over the presence of the CIA’s second in command, Kamikamica urged Fijians against what he described as “idle speculation”.

‘We have stable government’
“There is no need to be concerned,” he said. “We have a very stable government, we have a Prime Minister who is in total control of the Coalition.

“We are tracking well as a government,” said Kamikamica, adding that the important thing for the country was focusing on “how we work together to rebuild Fiji rather than getting preoccupied with idle speculation”.

“Expertise will keep the border safe, [so we ate] just looking at ways to collaborate.”

On the essence of their discussions on national issues, Kamikamica said “we didn’t really touch on that, more around just having an opportunity to collaborate”.

“When we have expertise like them at our doorstep, it is a very positive development and just to allow, not only Fiji, but the region to benefit.”

Nacanieli Tuilevuka is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Spies usually work in secrecy and behind the scene- and when the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency @CIA shows up in Suva, why not splash his full picture on the front page of @fijitimes #Fiji #FijiNews pic.twitter.com/u9HZAt6fPK

— Anish Chand (@achandftv) January 31, 2024

A birth of a child usually draws out changes from people. Parents, and even grandparents, recreate themselves in a bid to better address the demands of the new addition to the family.

Julio* knew this all too well. He first became a father at the young age of 17, and went on to work odd jobs to fulfill his responsibilities. But along the way, due to mounting pressure and the vicious cycle of poverty, Julio turned to illegal drugs.

“Sabi niya sa akin hindi ko siya maintindihan kasi ako raw may maayos na trabaho at madali makahanap ng panibagong trabaho kung sakali, samantalang siya, walang ganoong oportunidad para sa kanya,” Cristina, his younger sister, told Rappler in an interview.

• READ MORE: In Duterte’s drug war, justice is ‘nearly impossible’
• Other Philippine killings reports

(He told me I won’t be able to understand him because I have a stable job and can get another job if I want to, while he doesn’t have that opportunity.)

Julio eventually separated from his first wife, and met a new woman who then got pregnant. With a new baby on the way, 39-year-old Julio was determined more than ever to change.

He planned to start a sari-sari store, buy a refrigerator to sell frozen goods, just about anything to start anew.

“Gusto niya na iyong iyong nagawa niyang pagkukulang sa unang pamilya niya, hindi na ulit mangyari doon sa ipinagbubuntis ng kanyang kinakasama,” Cristina recalled. (He wanted to avoid repeating the same shortcomings he had with his first family.)

But President Rodrigo Duterte had other plans for Julio and thousands of others who came from the poorest communities in the Philippines. Drug dependents, for the country’s chief executive, are hopeless and useless to society.

Enemy out of drug users
Duterte made an enemy out of drug users and waged a “war” that smudged gutters, roads, and narrow alleys all over the country with blood.

RealNumberPH, the government’s unitary report on the drug war, shows that at least 6248 people have died at the hands of police during anti-illegal drug operations between July 2016 and April 30, 2022, while human rights groups estimate the total death toll to reach 30,000 to include victims of vigilante-style killings.

But figures obtained by Rappler show that the Philippine National Police (PNP) had already recorded 7884 deaths from July 1, 2016 to August 31, 2020.

On December 11, 2018, Julio became one of the thousands slain. One person told his family that their son was standing outside when he and a companion were abducted by men riding a white van.

Their lifeless bodies were found not long after.

Cristina was sure it was the police who killed his brother, but they feared going public with this allegation. It didn’t help that the sole witness, who talked to them during his brother’s funeral, was also eventually killed.

“Masakit ang pagkamatay niya pero iniisip ko na lang na at least nakita at naiburol namin siya, hindi tulad sa iba na nakikita na putol na ang kamay, wala na balita na bigla na lang nawawala,” she said.

(It hurts that he died but at least we were able to find his body and do a proper burial, unlike others who were dismembered or just disappeared completely.)

Duterte’s war on drugs
This is Duterte’s war on drugs, a key policy in his administration that has been scrutinised by both local and international bodies, including the International Criminal Court.

For Gloria Lai, regional director for Asia of the International Drug Policy Consortium, the bloody trail Duterte will leave behind once his presidential term ends on June 30 was highly unnecessary and preventable.

“[Killing people] is not a solution,” she told Rappler.

“What does success look like for the Duterte administration? It kept changing over time [and] there is no way you can say there is success,” Lai added.

The President and his allies’ rhetoric in the past six years would make one think that the Philippines has become a narcostate where drug users are behind the most violent crimes. For Duterte, they steal, they kill, they take innocent lives.

The Philippines indeed has issues with the proliferation of illegal drugs, but determining how widespread it is has been hard under the Duterte administration, given the overall lack of transparency and accurate data.

Duterte himself has been dropping different figures over the years. But a report released in February 2020 by Vice-President Leni Robredo following her short stint as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs stated that there “is no common and reliable baseline data on the number of drug dependents in the country.”

‘Keeping their grip on power’
“It really just seemed to serve the administration well… to obtain power, to keep their grip on power, because it creates fear, it creates enemies, it creates scapegoats that justify really brutal and violent actions,” Lai said, adding that the drug issue was “exploited for political gain”.

Six years into the administration, the Duterte government remains tight-lipped, if not vague, about what it deemed key performance indicators of the bloody war on drugs.

PNP spokesperson Colonel Jean Fajardo said the police used two approaches in addressing the drug problem in the country. For the last six years, it had focused on reducing supplies and targeting their so-called pushers, up to high-value individuals.

“Dalawa po ang lagi nating ginagamit na approach dito po sa ating kampanya laban sa ilegal na droga. Ito po ‘yong tinatawag natin na supply reduction strategy and demand reduction strategy,” Fajardo told Rappler.

(We use two approaches in our campaign against illegal drugs. We call them supply reduction and demand reduction strategies.)

But despite this, the PNP and its partner Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) only managed to clear 25,061 out of 35,471 barangays it identified as being involved in illegal drugs. As of April 30, 2022, there are still 10,410 drug-affected barangays yet to be cleared by the PNP and PDEA.

Spike after start of bloody operations
This means, 29.34 percent of drug-affected barangays are yet to be cleared by drug enforcement authorities. Based on data on drug-affected barangays from 2016 to 2022, the Philippines saw a spike in 2017, a year after the start of bloody operations.

From 19,717 drug-affected villages in 2016, the number rose to 24,424 the following year. The number of drug-affected barangays then significantly dropped between 2020 and 2022 — the pandemic years.

In terms of collected illegal drugs, the authorities were able to seize P89.29-billion worth of illegal drugs from July 1, 2016 until April 30, 2022. PDEA, one of the lead agencies for Duterte’s drug war, boasted that they were able to seize 11,843.41 kilograms or P76.55-billion worth of shabu or crystalline methamphetamine.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has yet to release its 2022 report on synthetic drugs in Southeast Asia. But in their 2021 report, the UNODC reported that shabu was the cause of the majority of drug-related arrests and treatment admissions in the Philippines.

For six years, authorities were able to arrest a total of 341,494 individuals. Of this number, only 15,096 are considered high-value targets.

Based on the PNP’s classification, individuals who are considered high-value targets are those who run drug dens, are on the wanted list, and leaders and members of drug groups, among others.

This means that of the total number of arrested individuals due to illegal drug offences, only 4.42 percent or around four in every 100 people arrested are high-value targets.
Dehumanizing rhetoric, actions

Drug users bacame pawns
Duterte used drug users as pawns in his bid to make violence a norm in state policy and actions, Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights) executive director Nymia Pimentel-Simbulan said.

“The legacy that he will be leaving behind would be institutionalization of state violence, this particular government has a proclivity towards addressing societal problems using a war framework,” she told Rappler in an interview on Monday, June 13.

Staying true to his violent rhetoric, the President has effectively mobilised state resources to use violence and other punitive measures to address issues. Beyond the problem of illegal drugs, this approach can also be seen in the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

If the Duterte government was serious about eradicating drugs in the Philippines, Lai said that it should’ve aimed for programs that better suit this intended outcome instead of focusing on killings.

For one, the state should’ve highlighted how drug addiction is a health problem, therefore producing better health programs. For people who use illegal drugs like shabu to stay awake to work long hours, the government should invest in programs that will keep families out of the vicious cycle of poverty.

But as it is, Duterte’s rhetoric and actions further dehumanize drug dependents, lumping them together with those who are part of the illegal drug syndicates.

“If you forced them and placed them into a list where they could be hunted down and randomly interrogated by police, or even just prevent them from getting a job or going to a certain school, you just drastically diminished their life prospects,” Lai said.

Gap in social response
PNP spokesperson Fajardo admitted that there is still really a gap when it comes to social response, as well as rehabilitation facilities to cater to drug personalities.

“Sinasabi natin, we agree on the fact na ito pong drug problem natin ay health problem. Hindi lang social problem. So ‘yong mga pasilidad kulang, ‘yong ating mga livelihood na pupuwede po nating i-offer dito sa mga sumurrender pati na rin po ‘yong mga nagtutulak, ‘yong mga pusher. Hindi po sa wala, pero kulang po talaga ‘yong efforts,” Fajardo said.

(We say that we agree on the fact that this drug problem is a health problem. Not only social problems. So our facilities are lacking, the livelihood that we can offer for the surrenderees, to pushers. It’s not that we don’t have anything, but the efforts are not enough.)

There are 64 drug rehabilitation centers in the Philippines as of 2021 — 16 under the Department of Health, nine with the local government units, and 39 privately-owned. Together, these facilities have 4840 bed capacity.

In a forum in June 2021, DOH’s Dangerous Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Programme manager Jose Leabres said there was a need for 11,911 additional in-patient beds for 2021 and 10,629 for 2022.

Data from the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) shows an increasing number of admissions to care facilities across the country. In 2021, there were at least 2344 new admissions.

A trail of blood
Duterte is leaving Malacañang on June 30 with a trail of blood from people killed in the name of his violent war on drugs. He also leaves behind thousands of orphaned children in the poorest communities, as well as a much more stigmatised issue of drug dependency in the Philippines.

It now falls on president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to “address all the harms done by the Duterte administration” on the issue of illegal drugs in the country, according to Lai, as well as giving justice to thousands of victims.

During the campaign season, Marcos said he will continue Duterte’s drug war, but would focus on its being a health issue. He also hinted about shielding it from the International Criminal Court.

Meanwhile, just this June, during courtesy calls with foreign ambassadors, Swedish Ambassador Annika Thunborg said there was a discussion to continue the drug war within the framework of the law and respect for human rights, among others.

PNP spokesperson Fajardo said the incoming administration should put focus on demand reduction.

“Pero ‘yong isa pa pong approach natin na tinatawag po nating demand reduction program, hangga’t may bumibili po, hangga’t may market po ay talagang meron at meron pong sisibol na panibagong players,” she said.

(But the other approach that we call the demand reduction program, until there are people who purchase drugs, until there is a market for them, there will always be new players.)
DRUG WAR DEATHS. Families of victims of drug-related extrajudicial killings and human rights advocates join a Mass at the Commission on Human Rights headquarters in Quezon City.

Not holding her breath
But Simbulan, whose group PhilRights has documented the victims of Duterte’s war on drugs, is not holding her breath, knowing the Marcos family’s track record and his alliance with Duterte.

“I am not that optimistic that it will adopt a different method or approach,” she said. “Chances are, it will adopt the same punitive violent approach in addressing the drug problem in the Philippines.”

IDPC’s Lai, meanwhile, said it’s going to be a massive turnaround if Marcos decides to do away with what Duterte has done. There is nothing preventing the incoming administration from focusing on drug issues, but it has to make sure to alter government response based on evidence and what communities really need, instead of a blanket campaign that puts a premium on killings.

Most importantly, the new administration should focus their resources on areas that would make a difference on people’s lives for the better.

“[They should] consider that in a lot of cases, the drug policies and the drug laws themselves have caused a lot more harm to people and communities than the actual drugs themselves,” Lai said.

* Names have been changed for their protection

Jodesz Gavilan is a Rappler reporter. Republished with permission.

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Politicians and activists in Manila have welcomed a draft resolution calling for United Nations action against the thousands of killings in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, reports Al Jazeera.

The proposal by Iceland, submitted to the 47-member UN Human Rights Council in Geneva late last week, urged the Philippine government to prevent extrajudicial executions and marked the first time the council has been asked to address the crisis.

At least 28 countries, mainly European states, have so far backed the call on Duterte’s government to “carry out impartial investigations and to hold perpetrators accountable”.

READ MORE: Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs is ‘large scale murdering enterprise’, says Amnesty

The Geneva forum is to vote on the resolution before ending its three-week session on Friday. The Philippines is among its current 47 members.

If passed, the council will request UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to “prepare a comprehensive written report on the human rights situation in the Philippines and to present it to the Human Rights Council at its 44th session, to be followed by an enhanced interactive dialogue.”

Responding to the move, Philippine Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Friday the government need not be told by anyone to stop extrajudicial executions.

“Our government is prepared to face any inquiry if the same becomes necessary to disabuse the minds of those who rely on or give undue credence to selective, if not biased, second-hand information,” Guevarra told reporters.

One Asian ambassador, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that his country would not support it, telling Reuters news agency: “There are worse things happening in the world.”

‘Add pressure’
The Duterte government insists the more than 6000 suspected drug dealers killed by police in anti-narcotics operations all put up a fight. But activists say that at least 27,000 have been killed since Duterte was elected in 2016 on a platform of crushing crime.

Myka Ulpina, a three-year-old shot during a police raid last weekend, is among the latest victims, they said.

Police said she was used as a human shield by her father, a suspected drug dealer who resisted arrest and opened fire. The girl’s mother has rejected that version of events.

Francis Pangilinan, senator for Philippines’ main opposition Liberal Party, welcomed the draft text on Friday.

“We hope it will add pressure from the international community so that the Duterte administration will finally see the light and realise that the daily killings is not the solution to the drug menace, and that it will sooner or later be held to account for at the very least failing to stop the killings,” he said in a statement.

‘Critical first step’
Duterte’s critics say his three-year-old campaign has been a failure, intended to create shock and fear and burnish his tough image without making a dent on big narcotics syndicates.

Allegations of police cover-ups, summary executions and planting of drugs and guns are widespread.

In a statement, the Manila-based iDefend group welcomed the draft resolution, saying it “provides a critical first step to help the Philippines”.

The group also expressed hope members of the HRC “will appreciate the urgency of the resolution and vote favourably for its adoption”.

“Widespread impunity is breaking the social fabric of Philippine society, shrinking civic spaces for dialogue and engagement, corroding the rule of law, while impressing on neighbouring states who wish to emulate the violent campaign,” it said.

“International investigation is an imperative if lives are to be saved, if human rights are to be respected and regional human security is to be protected.”

Bodies ‘pile up’
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the situation in the Philippines was a priority.

“Bodies continue to pile up in Manila and other urban areas, again in the context of the war on drugs which we have seen is very much a war against the poor, impoverished and marginalised communities, which are the biggest victims,” said Laila Matar, deputy director at HRW.

It occurs in a wider context of “attacks on human rights defenders, media activists, journalists, anyone who really dares to speak up against the killings”, she added.

Opposition senatorial canidate Chel Diokno, a veteran human rights lawyer, won the endorsement of former justices of the Philippines Supreme Court and ombudsmen as the campaign draws to a close.

Former SC justices Antonio Nachura and Roberto Abad and former ombudsmen Conchita Carpio Morales and Simeon Marcelo threw their support behind Diokno in a news conference yesterday for Monday’s general election.

Nachura said Diokno showed promise for his work as a member of the prosecution of the Joseph Estrada impeachment trial more than a decade ago.

READ MORE: Rene Saguisag endorses Diokno, the ‘voice of human rights’ in Senate

“Noong nalaman kong kakandidato si Chel (When I found out Chel would run for senator), I enlisted myself as a volunteer for him because of his passion for justice and his passion for quality education,” Nachura said.

Nachura, who served as SC justice under the Gloria Arroyo administration, said: “Pagkakataon ko nang makapagbayad kahit kaunti para sa nagawa ni Chel sa ating lahat.” (This is my chance to repay him for what he has done for all of us.)

Diokno heads the 45-year-old Free Legal Assistance Group, which has handled clients such as relatives of those who died in the 1987 MV Doña Paz tragedy, witnesses in the kidnapping case against retired army major-general Jovito Palparan, and most recently, victims of drug war killings, indigenous groups against martial law in Mindanao, fishermen against commercial fishing, and fishermen against the neglect of the West Philippine Sea.

Diokno scored small wins recently, when the SC compelled the Duterte administration to publicly release tens of thousands of drug war documents, and when the High Court issued a writ of kalikasan for the fishermen who complained against government neglect in the Spratly territories.

Founding dean
Diokno is also the founding dean of the De La Salle University College of Law.

“He worked with me, when the Supreme Court invited him to help us in the revision of the rules of civil procedure and he did fine work in his assignment,” said Abad, whose first work out of law school was for Diokno’s father, former senator Jose W. Diokno.

“We have a wonderful guy here, who can really serve our country more than many of our candidates who may be popular because they’re exposed to media,” said Abad.

Marcelo told reporters he has long promised not to be involved in politics after his term as ombudsman, but that supporting Diokno in his campaign was a chance he could not pass up.

“Kilalang-kilala siya bilang abogado na tagapagtanggol ng karapatang pantao at ating mga naaaping kababayan, mga mahihirap,” said Marcelo.

(He is well known as a lawyer who defends human rights of poor and oppressed Filipinos.)

Morales, who has been shying away from political statements since retiring as ombudsman in 2018, did not speak but told reporters she supports Diokno.

Uphill battle
Before the press conference, Morales said that while Diokno’s candidacy may be an uphill battle, “everything is possible”.

Far Eastern University Institute of Law dean Mel Sta Maria and Lyceum of the Philippines University College of Law dean Sol Mawis also endorsed Diokno.

“Mahal ni Chel higit sa lahat ang batas. Pero mas may mahal pa siya sa batas – ang katarungan,” Mawis said. (Chel loves the law most of all. But more than the law, what he loves is justice.)

Asia Pacific Report republishes Rappler articles in collaboration.

Despite the Philippine government’s brutal war on drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted that the drug problem in the country has “worsened” and warned that the country might end up like Mexico controlled by drug cartels.

“Things have worsened. My policemen are at the brink of surrendering,” he said in a speech during the campaign rally of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-laban) in Cagayan de Oro.

“You can see the headlines — every day billions worth of drugs are entering the country. Look at the main screen and the crawler, the running news at the bottom. It’s always about drugs, drugs, and drugs,” he added.

READ MORE: Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines

The President cited the recent 1 billion pesos (NZ$28 million) worth of shabu seized by authorities, which he said could just be a diversion of drug traffickers in the country.

“Don’t believe that it’s one billion. The next day there will be another one-point-three billion. That’s just an excuse. That’s a bait,” he said.

“Actually there are other billions coming in. The Philippines is contiguous, island for island. There are seven thousand islands. Just choose where you want to land,” he added.

Duterte said the Philippines could end up like Mexico with the current drug situation.

“In the end, we will be like Mexico. We will be controlled by drug cartels. The Sinaloa has already entered the country and that is why drugs are being thrown in the Pacific. The same is happening in the West,” he said.

Data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) death count in the government’s war on drugs was now at 5,104 since the President launched his brutal war on drugs in July 2016.

However, human rights organisations and campaigners for victims cite much higher death tolls ranging between 12,000 and 20,000.

Nestor Corrales reports for the Philippines Daily Inquirer.

By Jodesz Gavilan in Manila

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet says the violent anti-illegal drugs campaign of the Philippines should not be replicated by other countries.

“The drug policies in place in the Philippines, and its lack of respect for rule of law and international standards, should not be considered a model by any country,” she said in a statement delivered during the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, this week.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign since 2016 has attracted criticism from local and international human rights groups for the rising number of killings.

READ MORE: The Impunity Series

More than 5000 people have been killed in anti-drug police operations as of February 2019, while human rights groups estimate the number to reach more than 20,000 to include victims of vigilante killings.

Authorities have yet to catch up in prosecuting those responsible. Despite persistent requests, Solicitor General Jose Calida said the government stands firm that it will not publicly release documents on killings linked to the anti-drug campaign.

The UN rights chief called on the Philippine government to “adopt a public health approach, and harm reduction initiatives, that comply with human rights standards.”

‘Trap of drug reliance’
“People who have fallen into the trap of drug reliance need help to rebuild their lives; drug policies should not be more of a threat to their lives than the drugs they are abusing,” Bachelet said.

Duterte, however, has repeatedly said that there is no use in saving addicts, calling them “lost souls”.

Bachelet also highlighted the threats against human rights advocates, opposition politicians, and the media in the Philippines.

She also said she’s “extremely concerned” by moves to reintroduce death penalty and lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

Jodesz Gavilan is a reporter for the online news website Rappler.

• Duterte government allows ‘drug war’ deaths to go unsolved

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Critics of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte have called for his prosecution after remarks in which he appeared to take responsibility for extrajudicial killings in the country, reports Al Jazeera.

During a speech at the presidential palace on Thursday, President Duterte said: “What are my sins? Did I steal money? Even just one peso? Did I prosecute somebody I sent to jail? My only sin is extrajudicial killings.”

President Duterte is currently facing two charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

READ MORE: ICC launches crimes against humanity inquiry into Duterte’s war on drugs

In August, activists and families of eight victims of the Philippines’ “war on drugs” called for the president’s indictment over thousands of extrajudicial killings during his crackdown on drugs, reports Al Jazeera.

Yesterday, opposition Senator Rizza Hontiveros said Duterte’s “verbal admission will serve as solid evidence in the people’s quest for justice”.

“It will serve to contribute in moving forward national and international efforts to exact accountability from the president and his cohort,” said Hontiveros.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque attempted to backtrack from the comments, reports Al Jazeera.

‘He wasn’t serious’
“You know the president. He wasn’t serious,” Roque told local radio station DZRH yesterday.

“That’s the president being himself, being playful, highlighting the point that he isn’t corrupt.”

In his Thursday speech, Duterte also said there was no evidence to implicate him in the killings.

“Four thousand deaths. When? Where? How? What did I use? Nothing,” he said.

In February, an opposition senator Antonio Trillanes – who was arrested earlier this week over his fierce criticism of the president – said the death toll in the government’s war on drugs had surpassed 20,000 since President Duterte came to office in 2016.

In a speech before the Philippine Senate, Trillanes said the Duterte administration’s own report shows 3,967 “drug personalities” had been killed after allegedly resisting arrest during police operations between July 1, 2016, and November 27, 2017.

Rights groups said the comments should serve as evidence in the ICC probe into Duterte’s role in the deaths.

Damning indictment
“This apparent admission by the President himself highlights the urgent need for international investigations,” Minar Pimple, a senior director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

“This ‘playful’ comment is a grotesque cruelty at best, and a damning indictment of his government’s murderous campaign at worst.”

In a statement, Human Rights Watch Asia director Brad Adams said: “This admission should erase any doubt about the culpability of the president.”

Duterte unilaterally withdrew from the ICC’s founding treaty in March, saying it skirted due process and the presumption of his innocence, and sought to portray him as a “ruthless and heartless violator of human rights”.

On Tuesday, Senator Trillanes, who has been strongly critical of Duterte’s war on drugs, was arrested in a move which was widely condemned as persecution of the government’s opponents.

• Duterte critic Trillanes second senator to be arrested
• ‘If you are poor, you are killed’ – Amnesty International report

President Duterte vows to continue ‘chilling’ war on drugs. Video: Al Jazeera

By Paterno Esmaquel II in Manila

Protesters have staged the most widespread barrage of protests yesterday against President Rodrigo Duterte, as Filipinos marked the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

A running list by Rappler shows rallies scheduled across 14 regions in the Philippines, including Metro Manila, and even overseas.

The protests come in the face of growing discontent under Duterte – prices of goods have been rising, thousands have died in a drug war that has failed to eradicate drugs, and critical voices such as Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox face threats of either arrest or deportation.

READ MORE: Filipinos remember martial law: ‘Dictatorship is back’

Duterte’s public trust and satisfaction ratings also continue to fall.

Duterte – who earlier said the dictator’s daughter, Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, donated to his presidential campaign – wants the dictator’s son and namesake, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, to be vice-president so that Marcos can succeed him.

Marcos has a pending protest against the election victory of Vice-President Leni Robredo, leader of the opposition.

Meanwhile, Marcos on Thursday evening, September 20, launched a new campaign to revise history through a “talk show” with former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, architect and implementer of Martial Law as the elder Marcos’ defence minister.

‘No abuses’ claim
Marcos is selling the idea that no abuses happened under his father’s regime.

Protesters yesterday refused to take this sitting down.

Roads lead to Luneta
In Metro Manila, all roads lead to the iconic Rizal Park, also known as Luneta, for a protest mounted by various groups. Groups marching from San Agustin Church, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and University of the Philippines Diliman, among other assembly points, gathered at Rizal Park to fight the return of a dictatorship.

The Catholic Church, which was instrumental in toppling Marcos in 1986, is one of the groups that helped mount the September 21 rallies.

A Mass for Dignity and Peace was held at San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila, yesterday afternoon, followed by a march to Luneta with other religious denominations.

Protesters march from San Agustin Church to Luneta. Video: Rappler

Those who marched to Luneta included people of different political colours, from priests and nuns to leftist groups to Duterte critics such as former chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Different though they were, protesters had a similar cry: Resist a creeping dictatorship.

Ousted chief justice Sereno speaks at anti-Martial Law rally. Video: Rappler

Sereno was one of the loudest voices in Luneta on Friday.

‘Fighting for justice’
In a raised pitch and with impassioned gestures, Sereno said onstage: “Naghirap kami sa martial law, kaya’t nilalabanan namin, at itinataguyod ang katarungan at katuwiran para hindi na maulit ‘yan. Kaya mga mamamayan, lalong lalo na mga bata: Uulitin po ba natin? Papayagan ba natin ang martial law uli?”

(We suffered during martial law. That’s why we’re fighting for and upholding justice and righteousness to avoid a repeat of that. My fellow citizens, especially children, will we permit martial law to happen again?)

Sereno – who for years kept the “dignified silence” of the Supreme Court until Duterte had her ousted – found herself leading a chant before a crowd on Friday: “Never again to Martial Law!”

Below the stage where speakers like Sereno spoke, a tired Judy Taguiwalo, who marched from Mendiola to Luneta, was seated on a monobloc chair as she granted an interview.

Taguiwalo was an activist whom Duterte named social welfare secretary, only to be rejected by the Commission on Appointments in August 2017.

Taguiwalo, who suffered during the Martial Law years, also said “never again to Martial Law.”

“Nakulong ako sa panahon ng batas militar. Maraming namatay, na-torture,” she recalled. (I was imprisoned during the the period of military rule. Many people died and were tortured.)

Paterno Esmaquel II is a journalist with the online news website Rappler and these multimedia reports are drawn from the Rappler coverage.

• Never again: Martial law stories young people need to hear
• Only ‘death or isolation can stop me’, says Duterte critic Trillanes

By Camille Elemia of Rappler in Manila

Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV says only death and isolation can stop his criticisms against Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Probably they’ll have to put me away physically – either killing me or isolating me from the rest of the world,” Trillanes said in a Rappler Talk interview, when asked what would make him cease going against the President.

Trillanes said he was not afraid of death, as he again claimed that the President wanted him dead.

WATCH: Rappler interview with Trillanes on his fight for democracy

“I don’t fear death per se. It’s just one of the scenarios that they have and in fact we already validated that a few times – that Duterte really wants me killed. So it’s there on their table of options to get rid of somebody like me,” Trillanes said in the interview on Friday.

The opposition senator said he had been asked several times why he was a fierce Duterte critic and he always had the same answer.

“It’s really quite easy to just pledge your support to somebody like Duterte and have an easy life, right? For some reason, I can’t just do that. There’s this inner sense of duty to do what I’m doing,” he said.

The senator is one of the most consistent and fiercest critics of Duterte since the 2016 presidential election campaign, and had since accused the President and his family of amassing billions in illegal wealth. The Dutertes have repeatedly denied this.

Bank waiver challenge
Trillanes repeatedly challenged Duterte to sign a bank waiver to allow scrutiny of his bank accounts but the latter has refused to do so.

In June 2017, Trillanes and Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano filed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) a supplementary complaint against Duterte over the thousands of extrajudicial killings brought about by Duterte’s drug war.

The ICC, born out of the Rome Statute, is an intergovernmental and international tribunal which investigates genocides, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The ICC started “preliminary examinations” to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to establish that the case against Duterte would fall under its jurisdiction. In response, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the treaty – the subject of oral arguments in the Supreme Court.

Duterte issued Proclamation 572, ordering the revocation of the amnesty that then-president Benigno Aquino III granted to Trillanes in 2011.

Duterte also initially ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to immediately arrest the senator even without a warrant. They, however, refused, saying they would defer to civilian courts.

Trillanes questioned Duterte’s order before the SC. The SC denied the senator’s request for immediate relief via a temporary restraining order but asked the Office of the Solicitor General to respond to the senator’s main petition.

Trillanes has been defiantly staying in his Senate office for more than a week now, as two Makati City Regional Trial Courts have yet to act on the justice department’s requests for arrest warrants against him.

Camille Elemia is a journalist working for the independent online news website Rappler.

• What the Supreme Court TRO denial means for Trillanes

By David Robie in Paris

When Reporters Without Borders chief Christophe Deloire introduced the Paris-based global media watchdog’s Asia-Pacific press freedom defenders to his overview last week, it was grim listening.

First up in RSF’s catalogue of crimes and threats against the global media was Czech President Miloš Zeman’s macabre press conference stunt late last year.

However, Zeman’s sick joke angered the media when he brandished a dummy Kalashnikov AK47 with the words “for journalists” carved into the wood stock at the October press   conference in Prague and with a bottle of alcohol attached instead of an ammunition clip.

Zeman has never been cosy with journalists but this gun stunt and a recent threat about “liquidating” journalists (another joke?) rank him alongside US President Donald Trump and the Philippines leader, Rodrigo Duterte, for their alleged hate speech against the media.

Deloire cited the Zeman incident to highlight global and Asia-Pacific political threats against the media. He pointed out that the threat came just a week after leading Maltese investigative journalist – widely dubbed as the “one-woman Wikileaks” – was killed in a car bomb blast.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated outside her home in Bidnija on 16 October 2017 after exposing Maltese links in the Panama Papers and her relentless corruption inquiries implicated her country’s prime minister and other key politicians.

Although arrests have been made and three men face trial for her killing, RSF recently published a statement calling for “full justice’” – including prosecution of those behind the murder.

Harshly critical
While noting the positive response by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the journalists’ safety initiative by RSF and other media freedom bodies, Deloire was harshly critical of many political leaders, including Philippines President Duterte, over their attitude towards crimes with impunity against journalists.

In the Philippines, for example, there is still no justice for the 32 journalists brutally slain – along with 26 other victims – on 23 November 2009 by a local warlord’s militia in to so-called Ampatuan massacre, an unsuccessful bid to retain political power for their boss in national elections due the following year.

Rappler published a report last year updating the painfully slow progress in the investigations and concluded that “eight years and three presidential administrations later, no convictions have been made”.

Ironically, Rappler itself – hated by President Dutertre – has also been the subject of an RSF campaign in an effort to block the administration’s cynical and ruthless attempt to close down the most dynamic and successful online publication in the Philippines (133rd in the RSF World Media Freedom Index – a drop of six places).

Founded by ex-CNN investigative journalist Maria Ressa, Rappler has continued to challenge the government, described by RSF last year as the “most dangerous” country for journalists in Asia.

Duterte’s continuous attacks against the media were primarily responsible for the downward trend for the Philippines in the latest RSF Index, with RSF saying: “The dynamism of the media has also been checked by athe emergence of a leader who wants to show he is all powerful.”

The media watchdog also stressed that the Duterte administration had “developed several methods for pressuring and silencing journalists who criticise his notorious war on drugs”.

Test case
The revocation of Rappler’s licence by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is regarded as a test case for media freedom in the Philippines.

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines advocate Jhoanna Ballaran says the situation is very worrying.

The RSF consultation with some of its Asia-Pacific researchers and advocates in the field has followed a similar successful one in South America. It is believed that this is the first time the watchdog has hosted such an Asia Pacific-wide event.

Twenty three correspondents from 17 countries or territories — Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Hongkong, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Tibet — took part in the consultation plus a team of Paris-based RSF advocates.

Asia Pacific head Daniel Bastard says the consultation is part of a new strategy making better use of the correspondents’ network to make the impact of advocacy work faster and even more effectively than in the past.

The Pacific delegation – Associate Professor Joseph Fernandez, a journalist and media law academic who is head of journalism at Curtin University of Australia (19th on the RSF Index), AUT Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie of New Zealand (8th) and former PNG Post-Courier chief executive and media consultant Bob Howarth of Papua New Guinea (53rd) – made lively interventions even though most media freedom issues “pale into insignificance” compared with many countries in the region where journalists are regularly killed or persecuted.

Nauru’s controversial ban on the ABC from covering the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) this September was soundly condemned and the draconian 2010 Media Industry Development Decree in Fiji (57th) and efforts by Pacific governments to introduce the repressive “China model” to curb the independence of Facebook and other social media were also strongly criticised. (Nauru is unranked and China is 176th, four places above the worst country – North Korea at 180th).

Media highlights
Highlights of the three-day consultation included a visit to the multimedia Agence France-Presse, one of the world’s “big two” news agencies, and workshops on online security and sources protection and gender issues.

No sooner had the consultation ended when RSF was on the ball with another protest over two detained local journalists in Myanmar working for Reuters news agency.

An RSF statement condemned Monday’s decision by a Yangon judge to go ahead with the trial of the journalists on a trumped up charge of possessing secrets and again demanded their immediate release.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have already been detained for more than 200 days with months of preliminary hearings.

They now face a possible 14-year prison sentence for investigating an army massacre of Rohingya civilians in Inn Din, a village near the Bangladeshi border in Rakhine state, in September 2017.

RSF secretary-general Deloire says: “The refusal to dismiss the case against the journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo is indicative of a judicial system that follows orders and a failed transition to democracy in Myanmar.”

The chances of seeing an independent press emerge in Myanmar have now “declined significantly”.

The Pacific Media Centre’s David Robie was in Paris for the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific consultation. Dr Robie is also convenor of PMC’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

• RSF’s World Press Freedom Index 2018
• Who murdered Malta’s most famous journalist?
• ABC ban: News Corp rejects media boycott of Nauru forum

Czech President Miloš Zeman’s “joke” threat against journalists. Video: The Young Turks

On the eve of Human Rights Day, Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo called on Filipinos to stand up against all forms of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs, and the oppression of free speech by online trolls.

This was the message of the former human rights lawyer for Human Rights Day, celebrated worldwide today.

“Ang Araw ng Karapatang Pantao ngayong taon ay hindi lamang pagbabalik-tanaw sa ating kontribusyon sa labang ito. Dapat din nating bigyang-diin ang diwa ng pagdiriwang na ito, dahil sa mga nakababahalang balita tungkol sa malawakang paglabag sa karapatang pantao, lalo na sa mga nasa laylayan ng lipunan,” said Robredo.

(Human Rights day this year is not only a time to remember our contributions to this fight. We should commemorate this day because of the disturbing news on the widespread human rights violations that are happening now, especially against people who are on the fringes of society.)

The Vice-President said Filipinos have experienced cases of human rights abuses in the past year.

“Hinahamon ng kasalukuyang panahon ang bawat isa sa atin na paigtingin ang paninindigan para sa karapatang pantao, sa harap ng pinagdaan ng Pilipino nitong nakalipas na taon. Kasama na rito ang mga extrajudicial killings, ang pagsupil sa karapatang magpahayag, pati na sa social media, at ang kahirapan na patuloy na pumipilay sa milyun-milyon nating mga kababayan,” she said.

(We are being challenged by the times to strengthen our fight to uphold human rights, in the face of everything Filipinos experienced in the past year. These include extrajudicial killings, oppression of free speech even on social media, and poverty that continues to cripple millions of our countrymen.)

Robredo is a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, where thousands of drug suspects have been killed in legitimate police operations and vigilante-style killings nationwide.

The Vice-President is also against the tactics of online trolls, who use social media to swarm on critics of the President. Robredo herself has been a longtime target of these trolls and government propagandists.

READ MORE: State-sponsored hate: The rise of the pro-Duterte bloggers

She had called fake news spreaders as “unapologetic,” “arrogant,” and an “insult” to other government officials who do their job well.

Standing up to a ‘bully’
Human rights groups echoed Robredo’s message. The In Defence of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDEFEND) and the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) condemned “in the strongest terms” the Duterte administration’s “anti-human rights policies and actions”.

The two human rights groups hit the drug war and Duterte’s declaration of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army as “terrorists”.

They also said the killings of activist priest Marcelito Paez of the Rural Missionary in Nueva Ecija and Datu Victor Danyan of South Cotabato “creates a chilling effect that no one is safe and that anyone who gets in his way will be silenced.

“The President’s utter disrespect towards democracy and rule of law is showing no pretense to exhibit his authoritarian streak by denying the voices of dissent. His government is destroying the generations of progress on the respect and protection of human rights in the guise of war on drugs and terror,” said iDEFEND and PAHRA in a statement.

The human rights groups said they hold the Duterte administration accountable “for the systematic violence against human rights defenders.

“But we all know that a person obsessed with power will never listen. Often the bully takes pleasure in seeing a victim’s fear. The only way to stop a tyrant is by standing up firmly together. The only thing necessary for the triumph of tyranny is for us to do nothing,” they said.

Newly formed group Artikulo Trese even held a fun run and a symposium on extrajudicial killings on Saturday.

“We are people of God –a caring and loving society; shepherds who should take care of our flock, not slaughter them or feed them to the wolves,” said Artikulo Trese convenor Bishop Deogracias Iñiquez.

“Everyone deserves due process, even the most ruthless of criminals,” he added.

Climate change and human rights
Senator Loren Legarda, meanwhile, said it was also important for the Philippines to pursue climate justice internationally because Filipinos’ human rights are curtailed by the negative effects of climate change.

READ MORE: Climate change is the new battleground for human rights

Legarda, chairperson of the Senate committee on climate change, said in her Human Rights Day message that the Philippines must strengthen its demand for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement by 2020.

“We always need to contextualise the discussion on climate change with the issue of human rights. We cannot truly address climate change if we do not recognize the fact that climate change impinges on our very basic human rights, such as access to food, water, shelter, livelihood, and the right to life itself,” said Legarda.

“Compared to industrialised countries, the Philippines barely contributes to global warming, and yet we bear its brunt.

“Every year, millions of families get displaced, thousands of lives and livelihoods are lost, and billions worth of agriculture and infrastructure are damaged because of climate change. It is time that we seek justice for these tragedies,” she added.

• Duterte and the trolls: What happens when the government uses Facebook as a weapon?
• More Philippines stories

Being a journalist in the Philippines has become a lot tougher, riskier and traumatic in the face of  President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called “war on drugs” which has seen more than 7000 people killed in the Philippines in the last 18 months, says a leading media researcher and advocate.

In a narrative “singularly dominated by the police”, says Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), the face of journalism in the Philippines has begun to feel the impact.

Mangahas told the audience of the ‘Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific’ panel during the Pacific Media Centre’s 10th anniversary event one of the “freest” and “most rambunctious” media in Asia was facing serious challenges.

“The media in the Philippines right now is suffering from severe psychological trauma for seeing dead bodies, observing the terrible grief of family members of those who have been killed in the war on drugs by our president of only 16 months,” she said.

Mangahas said journalists in the Philippines had become “first responders” in a war which had seen institutions falter and the rule of law challenged.

“The rule of law is weak in the Philippines. This happens, this aberration – Duterte, the war on drugs, the martial law on Marawi – because we have many broken institutions in the Philippines.”

Although impunity was a problem in the drug war, Mangahas said accountability was a “twin problem” which the media had failed to uphold in a story “written and dramatic in numbers”.

‘Nobody owns up’
“People are getting killed but nobody owns up. Nobody gets jailed for what he has done. Cases are not even filed or pursued in court up to prosecution and conviction.

“I think we have gone wrong, we have not reported enough about our people,” she said.

Mangahas said that reporting on justice and rule of law, a “very difficult thing for a journalist to do”, had become harder under Duterte’s drug war, as journalists had to retrace their steps.

PCIJ’s executive director said that the drug war had called attention to the role of the journalist in the Philippines, which a “virulent social media community” had seized upon.

The war on drugs had seen “trolls” call out reputable media organisations such as Rappler and the Philippine Daily Inquirer as “fake news”.

Mangahas said she did not like to see journalism diminished by the “loose term” and warned fake news was a form of misinformation, propaganda, spin and hate speech.

“People never think about what it includes, what it excludes.

‘Open to opaqueness’
“News is never, ever fake,” she said.

Mangahas said a general shift from “open to opaqueness” now characterised media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Historically in the last 20 years, nations of the Asia-Pacific region have moved from open to opaque.

“In many parts of the region what we’re observing is a general push-back.”

Johnny Blades, a senior journalist at RNZ Pacific, spoke about the media and Melanesia, especially Indonesian-ruled West Papua.

Among a handful of New Zealand journalists to travel to West Papua, Blades explained that despite President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s best intentions of loosening media restrictions, there was a lack of cohesion about Widodo’s “Papua policy” in various state agencies.

“Out there in Papua it’s not Jokowi running the show, it’s more likely to be the military and the police.

‘Unlikely to quell discontent’
“His focus on development is unlikely to quell the discontent with Indonesian rule among Papuans and that, to a large degree, relates to their historic core grievance about what they see as an illegitimate self-determination process,” Blades said.

Despite the “dominating” presence of security forces and an “uneasy reality” and “terrible tension”, Blades said he was grateful for the chance to have gone there.

“I never thought I’d get to West Papua.

“I was really blown away by the beauty of West Papua. It’s indigenous people are truly magnificent people,” he said.

Introducing the panel, the chair, PMC director Professor David Robie, said how both the Philippine crisis and the Indonesian human rights violations in West Papua had been virtually ignored by the mainstream media in New Zealand.

He said the PMC’s media products Pacific Media Watch freedom project and Asia Pacific Report had tried hard to balance these blind spots.

A minute’s silence was held to remember the victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, while protesters held “Stop the killing” placards.

At the start of the panel, AUT graduate Sasya Wreksono introduced her special video to mark the anniversary, saying “I hope you get the feeling of the commitment, the drive and the passion that goes into the Pacific Media Centre”.

Evening MC Alistar Kata, an honours graduate and former Pacific Media Watch editor, added: “I would imagine, Sasya, it wasn’t easy to fit 10 years of stuff and content into two and half minutes!”.

• Pacific Media Centre turns ten, talks media freedom under violent threat
• PMC journalists, academics, students and mentors celebrate 10 years
• Philippines reporting risks grow under ‘The Punisher’, says PCIJ advocate
• PMC photojournalism book offers ‘window’ into Pacific culture, issues

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Threats to media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region are under the spotlight at the Pacific Media Centre’s 10th anniversary event today.

Since 2007, the PMC has examined whether the region is at a tipping point in media freedom issues and has explored the future of journalism in the Asia-Pacific region.

Carrying news of coups, human rights abuses, disasters and climate change, the centre has been an important independent voice, says Professor Berrin Yanıkkaya, head of AUT’s School of Communication Studies.

“The Pacific Media Centre is a channel for the voiceless to have a voice, a platform for the unseen to be seen, and an arena for the ‘others’ to deliberate their ideas.”

Dr Yanıkkaya will launch an investigative photojournalism book, Conflict, Custom & Conscience: Photojournalism and the Pacific Media Centre 2007-2017, edited by Jim Marbrook, Del Abcede, Natalie Robertson and David Robie.

Marbrook, an award-winning documentary maker, says the PMC’s work is “hitting home”.

“We’ve seen the rise of a journalistic information service that serves the world, but significantly the Asia-Pacific region.”

Journalism under duress
With special guests Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and RNZ International senior journalist Johnny Blades, the PMC will also discuss the challenges to journalists reporting the Asia-Pacific region under the theme of “Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific”.

“The Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch project has developed a strategy to challenge issues of ethics, media freedom, industry ownership, cross-cultural diversity and media plurality – including in the Philippines,” says PMC founding director Professor David Robie.

“This has had quite an impact over the past decade.”

In the panel chaired by Dr Robie, Mangahas will speak about the culture of impunity in the Philippines and the widely condemned wave of extrajudicial killings by President Rodrigo Duterte’s government, which has claimed more than 7000 lives in the ongoing “war on drugs”.

Although the deadly crackdown reportedly eased last month when action was left to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Mangahas argues there has been no real change in strategy.

Blades, among a handful of New Zealand journalists to visit West Papua, will talk about his ground-breaking assignment in 2015 to the Melanesian nation controversially ruled by Indonesia since the 1960s, where allegations of human rights abuses are rife.

“There’s been a lot of democratic change in Indonesia since the turn of the century but West Papuans are still routinely restricted from exercising their basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly.

“Meanwhile, the catalogue of violent abuses and intimidation against Papuans grows,” says Blades.

The anniversary also includes the screening of a special video by Sasya Wreksono highlighting the PMC’s achievements over the past 10 years, along with a photographic exhibition.

MC is Tagata Pasifika’s Alistar Kata, a former Pacific Media Watch editor.

Seminar: “Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific” 
Thursday, November 30, 2017 5.30pm-8pm
WG126, School of Communication Studies, AUT
55 Wellesley St, Auckland
Refreshments will be provided
Free admission

• More information
• The event on Facebook
• Livestreaming link

The Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology is highlighting the threats to media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region in an event next week marking its 10th anniversary.

Following the International Day of Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists earlier this month, the PMC is hosting two guest speakers in a panel addressing:

• the so-called “war on drugs” in the Philippines and the extrajudicial killings estimated by officials at more than 7000 while human rights agencies claim a higher figure; and
• human rights violations in West Papua.

The event features Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, speaking on journalist safety and the culture of impunity.

The Philippines is the country with the largest single massacre of journalists – 32 on the island of Mindanao in 2009, where a three-month urban siege against jihadists in Marawi City has recently ended with a toll on many newsrooms.

The deadly crackdown on drugs reportedly eased up last month when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police to leave action to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), saying the shift was to target “big fish”.

Human rights advocates had accused Duterte of waging a “war on the poor”, but Mangahas argues that there has been no real change in strategy.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last week in Manila the deaths “require investigation”.

Tabloid Jubi editor Victor Mambor (at wheel) with Johnny Blades in West Papua. Image: RNZ Pacific

Johnny Blades, a senior journalist of RNZ International, will also speak about his challenging experiences in West Papua, especially during an “official” visit to the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian provinces in 2015.

Media freedom
The panel will be chaired by founding PMC director Professor David Robie, who has campaigned for many years on media freedom issues and was in Jakarta for the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference in May.

A former Pacific Affairs Minister, Laumanuvao Winnie Laban, who launched the PMC a decade ago this year, will also be attending.

Professor Berrin Yanıkkaya, head of the School of Communication Studies at AUT, will launch a graphic new media book, Conflict, Custom & Conscience: Photojournalism and the Pacific Media Centre 2007-2017, edited by Jim Marbrook, Del Abcede, Natalie Robertson and David Robie.

She will also launch the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review research journal.

A special video by Sasya Wreksono highlighting the PMC’s achievements over 10 years will be screened along with a photographic exhibition of the research centre’s evolution.

Seminar: “Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific”
Thursday, November 30, 2017 5.30pm-8pm
WG126, School of Communication Studies, AUT
55 Wellesley St, Auckland
Refreshments will be provided
Admission free
RSVP by November 24 to:
communicate@aut.ac.nz

• More information and invitation
• The event on Facebook
• Livestreaming link

United Nations Rapporteur Agnes Callamard has slammed the P1000 (NZ$26) budget that the House of Representatives voted to give the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for 2018.

Callamard has explained in an email to Rappler that the CHR “is a crucial institution for the Philippines: for human rights protection, the rule of law, accountability”.

“It cannot deliver on its mandate without an appropriate budget, particularly at a time when it is confronted with allegations of massive human rights violations throughout the country, and including, but not only, in the context of the ill-advised, destructive ‘war on drugs,'” Callamard said.

READ MORE: Give CHR zero budget if it cannot be abolished – Alvarez

“The people of the Philippines deserve a strong independent human rights institution able to monitor, investigate, and report on human rights violations, protect victims and their families, and hold the powerful to account for their abuses of international human rights standards,” she said.

“Instead they are getting a ‘war on drugs’ which, by the President’s own account, has failed to curtail addiction rates, while creating a climate of fear and insecurity, feeding impunity, and undermining the constitutional fabric of the country. If the Philippine Congress is looking for public money being wasted, damaging and hurting the Philippine society, this is it,” the UN rapporteur said.

Earlier, in a tweet, Callamard said of the lawmakers’ move: “Reprehensible and unconscionable”.

Callamard is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, connected with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

She was the UN expert invited by President Rodrigo Duterte to probe the killings in the Philippines, provided that she engages Duterte in a debate – a condition that she has refused.

Callamard made her statement after the House of Representatives voted 119-32 to allocate only P1000 for the CHR in 2018.

In contrast, the House earlier approved a P900-million ($18-million) budget for Oplan Double Barrel, the anti-drug campaign of the Philippine National Police.

The P1000 budget for the CHR is not final, however, as it has to go through the Senate too for another round of deliberations. In any case, it already drew flak from Filipinos who described it as an “act of tyranny”.

The House is dominated by allies of Duterte, who has repeatedly slammed the CHR for questioning the killings in his war on drugs.

More than 14,100 people have been killed in both police operations and vigilante-style killings since Duterte began his drug war in July 2016.

• More Philippines stories

ANALYSIS: Presented by Richard Gizbert

The most violent week yet in President Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines has seen more than 90 people killed and NGO workers threatened, reports Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post.

Since coming to power in June last year, Duterte has been on a mission to eradicate what he claims is the country’s pandemic drug problem.

The brutal crackdown on the drug trade in the country – described by man critics as a “war on the poor” – is showing no signs of slowing down, says the weekly media analysis programme presented by Richard Gizbert.

Last week, 58 alleged drug dealers and users were killed in and around the capital, Manila, with the total since Duterte came to office being put at more than 13,000 by human rights agencies.

One of the victims, 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, made headlines. Police say he was killed in a two-way firefight. Eyewitnesses, backed by CCTV footage, tell a different story.

President Rodrigo Duterte has dismissed the killings of children as “collateral damage” while labelling anyone who criticises his deadly approach as an “enemy of the state”.

Journalists and now NGOs are on that “enemy” list.

Contributors:
Maria Ressa, CEO, Rappler
Vergel Santos, chairman, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)
RJ Nieto, publisher, Thinking Pinoy
Karen Gomez-Dumpit, commissioner, Commission on Human Rights
Felipe Villamor, Philippines reporter, The New York Times

• Murdered teenager Kian delos Santos laid to rest
• ‘Our son Kian – a good, sweet boy’
• CCTV footage showing Caloocan police dragging youth to his death
• Slain Philippine teenager’s family files murder complaint against police
• The Listening Post

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of the Philippine capital of Manila to denounce President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, as they marked the death anniversary of one of the country’s pro-democracy heroes.

Human rights advocates, youth groups, and religious communities defied a tropical storm that brought steady rain to gather at the memorial of the 1986 People Power revolution to call for an end to the killings in Duterte’s war on drugs.

Amid public pressure, Duterte admitted on Monday there could have been abuses in his anti-drug war policy.

“There is a possibility that in some of police incidents there could be abuses. I admit that,” Duterte told reporters in Manila. “These abusive police officers are destroying the credibility of the government.”

READ MORE: Duterte says ‘bloodiest’ day of war on drugs ‘beautiful’

Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Manila, said at least 4000 people joined in the rally, adding that a separate protest was also held in another part of the city.

Protesters are demanding an independent investigation into the summary executions and police operations that left thousands of people dead. They said the president should be held accountable for the deaths.

Demonstrators waved Philippine flags and carried banners that read: “Resist the Fascist!”, “Stop the Killings!”, and “We will fight” among others.

Monday marked the 34th anniversary of the assassination of democracy icon Benigno Aquino, who fought the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos was overthrown in 1986 in a peaceful protest, which saw Aquino’s widow, Corazon, become president. Duterte is an avowed supporter of Marcos.

Leaders of Monday’s protest said the death toll in Duterte’s war on drugs had now reached 13,000 – surpassing the number of deaths of anti-government activists during dictator Marcos’ two decades in office.

Government figures show that since Duterte took office last year, an estimated 3451 “drug personalities” have been killed in gun battles with police up to July 26, 2017.

Another 2000 more died in drug-related homicides, including attacks by motorcycle-riding masked gunmen and other assaults, while 8200 homicide cases are “under investigation”.

17-year-old student killed
At the rally, demonstrators also expressed outrage over the death of 17-year-old student, Kian delos Santos, who witnesses said was falsely accused of being a drug dealer and summarily executed by police earlier this week.

In another part of Manila, hundreds of marching neighbours and activists lit candles near the spot where delos Santos was shot dead during a mass raid that left at least 80 people dead in three days.

“Please be fair,” the student’s father, Zaldy delos Santos, told police. “We are the victims here. We are the ones you should help.”

He made the appeal after authorities went on the offensive to defend the police action, saying there was information indicating the boy was a drug courier and addict.

But initial forensic evidence showed there was no gunfight, and the three bullet wounds indicated the student was shot at close range in the back of the head.

According to reports, there have been at least 30 minors killed in the drug war since June 2016, when Duterte took office.

Arrests ordered
On Monday, Duterte ordered the police to take custody of officers who were involved in the killing of delos Santos, saying he would not condone abuses, and that the police officers would have to face the consequences of their actions if that is the recommendation of a formal investigation.

The head of the Public Attorney’s Office, Persida Acosta, told reporters she was recommending murder charges against the officers involved based on the initial autopsy report.

“Murder charges will most likely be filed because of the location of the entry wounds,” Acosta said in a television interview.

Neighbours, teachers and classmates of the boy also vouched for his good character. The education ministry issued a statement condemning the police action.

• Duterte inspired by ‘Petrus’ shootings

More than three decades later, Petrus, considered one of Indonesia’s past gross human rights violations, is said to be an inspiration for President Rodrigo Duterte, the leader of the Philippines, in his notorious war on drugs.

This claim was made by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, who was also a former Defence Minister and Armed Forces (ABRI) commander before the fall of the New Order regime in 1998.

According to Wiranto, Duterte revealed the source of inspiration behind his “shooting-spree” of drug traffickers to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo during their casual conversations on the sidelines of the 30th ASEAN Summit in Manila on Saturday last week.

“Duterte joked ‘I learned from Indonesia.’ President Jokowi was confused [and asked] when President Duterte came to learn about Indonesia,” Wiranto said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday.

“President Duterte answered, ‘No, I learned from Petrus [during the administration] of Soeharto’,” he added.

“Apparently, Petrus, which in Indonesia is thought of as an unresolved case of past human rights abuse, has become an example in [the Philippines],” Wiranto said.

Operation Sickle
The Petrus shootings started in August 1982 under the command of then chief of the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib), the late Admiral Soedomo. The operation was codenamed “Operasi Clurit” (Operation Sickle).

In March 1983, General Benny Moerdani, who replaced Soedomo as commander of Kopkamtib, took over the security operation.

The operation targeted recidivists, local gangs, unemployed youths and others considered sources of violent crime. Some were targeted by the operation simply because they had tattoos, considered a mark of criminals.

After a four-year investigation that started in 2008, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) announced in 2012 that the Petrus shootings were a gross violation of human rights as they involved systematic extra-judicial killings, torture and abduction.

The Indonesian Military and their territorial commanders as well as the National Police were mostly responsible for carrying out the widespread killings, which resulted in the deaths of at least 2000 people according to the state rights body.

In the Philippines, up to 9000 people have been killed in extrajudicial executions by police and vigilantes working in Duterte’s drug war campaign, according to Amnesty International.

More than 2500 people have been killed in shoot-outs during raids since Duterte took office on June 30 last year. His war on drugs has been condemned by human rights groups for what they claim amounts to crimes against humanity.

Poor targeted
Amnesty International’s report released in January reveals that the Philippine police have systematically targeted mostly poor and defenceless people across the country and have paid others to kill thousands of alleged drug offenders.

In an alarming development, Duterte’s brutal crackdown on the drug trade has inspired Indonesian security officials, including National Narcotics Agency (BNN) head General Budi Waseso, to take a tougher stance on drugs.

Recently, Jokowi instructed law enforcement officers to impose the sternest sanctions on drug dealers operating in Indonesia. The President has given law enforcement bodies the permission to gun down suspected drug dealers in the streets if necessary.

• More articles on the ‘war on drugs’

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has ordered law enforcers to shoot drug traffickers to deal with what he called a narcotics emergency facing the country.

“No mercy for foreign drug traffickers. We are currently in an emergency in terms of drug abuse,” Widodo said.

The president spoke after police seized a ton of crystal methamphetamine worth Rp 1.5 trillion (NZ$151 million) in Serang, Banten, on July 13, 2017. The narcotic, locally known as shabu-shabu, was smuggled from China and constitutes the Indonesia’s largest seizure to date, reports the state-run news agency Antara.

Police arrested four Taiwanese men who allegedly attempted to distribute the drugs in the greater Jakarta area. One of them was shot dead while resisting arrest.

Widodo said the police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) were working together to act decisively against drug traffickers.

“Now, the police and the TNI are really firm, particularly against international drug dealers who enter Indonesia. Just shoot them if they even show a little resistance,” he added.

National police chief General Tito Karnavian was quoted by Antara as saying that drug smugglers were targeting Indonesia because they deemed the country’s law enforcement efforts weak – unlike Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Drug traffickers ‘rampant’
“Drug traffickers have noticed that, apart from the potential market, law enforcement officers may be weak to act. Our laws are considered weak; that causes them to become rampant in Indonesia,” Karnavian said.

He said international drug traffickers have been given a stern warning not to consider Indonesia as one of their main destinations for the illegal drug trade.

“I have ordered the police to crack down and act tough, especially against foreign drug dealers. I have also told officers to act in accordance with their standard operational procedure, which also means shooting them if they resist arrest,” Karnavian said.

Indonesia is not the only Southeast Asian country under threat from the widespread distribution of illicit drugs. The Philippines government under President Rodrigo Duterte declared war on drug pushers last year.

Extrajudicial killings in the Philippines have drawn condemnation from the international community and human rights groups.

Usman Hamid, country director for the United Kingdom-based rights group Amnesty International in Indonesia, said the statements by Jokowi and Tito may result in law enforcement officials on the ground committing unlawful actions, such as extrajudicial killings or summary executions, which constitute gross human rights violations.

“Duterte’s war on drugs is the wrong kind of approach for a democratic country. Indonesia must look for a better approach or best practices from other countries,” Hamid told the Jakarta Globe.

Shoot-on-sight policy
He added that Duterte declared war on drugs after the state imposed martial law with the approval of Congress. The implementation of Duterte’s shoot-on-sight policy violates the country’s constitutional law and other regulations.

Hamid said Jokowi and Tito’s remarks could be regarded as a move to implement martial law in Indonesia. He added that their statements show a lack of understanding of basic norms of human rights and the rule of law.

The Jakarta Globe also reports an overdue election bill has finally been approved, which will serve as the legal basis for the 2019 presidential vote.

The bill, which is waiting to be signed into law by Widodo, requires presidential candidates to gain the support of a political party or coalition of parties with 20 per cent of the seats in the legislature as of the 2014 poll.

Candidates can also be supported by parties that won 25 percent of the vote in the election.

However, this has drawn criticism as fears emerge that the new threshold may limit the right to stand for election.

This comes as Indonesians will, for the first time in 2019, choose the legislature and executive on the same day.

Dames Alexander Sinaga is a reporter with the Jakarta Globe. 

Drug dealers and users at a private university in the Philippines capital of Manila are confident they will survive President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”.

The students say this is because Duterte is going after those who peddle methamphetamine (shabu) and party drugs such as ecstasy.

They claim their drugs – marijuana and cocaine – are currently flying under the administration’s radar.

One of the students, “Bossing”, from a private university in Metro Manila, therefore continues his trade of not only marijuana, but also acid and cocaine.

“Duterte’s focus is on shabu and party drugs. I’m only using marijuana and cocaine.”

Bossing, who has frequently used marijuana since his time in junior high school, says he is not “scared” of Duterte.

“I am not using shabu.”

‘Not really a target’
Another student at a private university, ‘Jeremy’, holds a similar view and feels Duterte condemns the use of shabu more than marijuana.

“I feel the president is lenient to marijuana. What he is looking for is shabu. With marijuana, it will be unfortunate if you get caught using it, but you the marijuana user, is not really a target.

“I am quite scared but I feel I am safe.”

Jeremy’s friend “Ranz”, also a marijuana user since third year junior high school, is more scared of the barking K-9 units in train stations than the controversial operations of the Philippine National Police against drug users and dealers.

“I am not dealing with shabu,” he says.

Ranz, who admitted voting for Duterte in the May 2016 national elections, says marijuana users like himself are “small time” and therefore do not care about accusations of extrajudicial killings.

“What the f— do we care about those things?”

Police corruption allegations
Bossing, Jeremy and Ranz admit they “feel protected’ by what they claim is a culture of corruption among police.

Ranz says this is because the police force is “poor”, so bribe money from suspected drug users.

Drug dealers, meanwhile, are an “escape route”.

“Even if one pretends to be a rich person, the police would not care about you and it is already your advantage.”

Ranz says he wants the ‘war on drugs’ to continue.

“Shabu is the only problematic drug that should be eliminated. Keep it up,” he encouraged.

On May 31, 2017, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) held a public consultation to determine the feasibility of requiring college students to undergo a drug test prior to enrolment.

‘Actively confront’ drugs
The idea had been floated the previous year by the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), who urged CHED on September 2, 2016, to “actively confront” drug testing “with due consideration to academic freedom of higher education institutions, the principle of reasonable regulation of educational institutions, and accessibility of quality education for all”.

However, Bossing, Jeremy and Ranz are adamant mandatory drug testing will not stand in the way of their habit or stop other college students from taking drugs.

“There many ways to avoid getting caught, like borrowing someone else’s urine samples.”

In the past, when Jeremy and Ranz were selected for a random drug test – authorised by the Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 – they said they did not take marijuana for a month prior to the test.

Their results were “negative.”

With the result, Ranz says he can use it to protect himself “from any harm” he may endure.

But as long as Bossing, Jeremy, and Ranz stay away from shabu, they “are going to survive the war on drugs”.

Roy Abrahmn Narra is an MA in Journalism student at the University of Santo Tomas, and produced this story for his graduate class Global Journalism Practice and Studies.

• Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ killings spark row during NZ human rights seminar
• Curbing illegal drugs now development plan target in Philippines 

Also by Roy Abrahmn Narra:

• Philippines tries to reverse trend in new HIV detections

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” has sparked further controversy in New Zealand at a public seminar delivered by Filipino human rights defender Wilnor Papa.

Heated debate erupted between several Filipino citizens, Papa and members of the audience at Papa’s “On the frontline” talk at the University of Auckland last Thursday.

Organised by the NZ Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice, Auckland University of Technology’s law school and Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, debate culminated around how many people had been killed since Duterte took power on June 30, 2016.

Papa said between 4000 and 9000 Filipinos had been murdered in what members of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand described as a “harvest” against poor people.

This was challenged by Filipino citizens Allan Jacob, Rex Yap and a Filipino student in the room who were concerned about Duterte being painted “negatively”.

Jacob and Yap told Asia Pacific Report they attended the talk to “present a balanced view” of Duterte.

“There are killings, yes, because there are heightened operations to get rid of the drug menace in the Philippines. What we don’t want to see is the administration being painted as a despot, just killing people.”

9000 people killed
The Filipino student from the University of Auckland accused Papa of quoting from “fake media” — such as leading national news media the Philippine Daily Enquirer and Rappler — although data on the number of deaths is continuously being gathered by both official and human rights sources.

The Human Rights Watch cited “more than 7000” in its comprehensive report in March, License To Kill, which names victims and details evidence.

“I am a Philippine citizen, so I think I have every right to comment about what is going on in the Philippines,” he said.

“In the previous administration, there were 9000 to 14,000 deaths. So now you say 9000 people have been killed because of the drug war. Do you mean that the present administration are carrying out killings at an exponential level?”

Papa said in response a number of suspected drug dealers had been killed in a very short space of time.

“I think during the time of Duterte, from after he won the election, in less than a year there are already 9000 dead.”

Papa later emphasised, however, that Amnesty International, where he is campaigns manager for the Philippines, is trying to establish a clearer figure, but stressed this was difficult due to intimidation of people on the ground.

“They’re giving us conflicting numbers, but we’re talking to as many organisations as we can,” Papa said.

Most vulnerable targeted
Amnesty International began monitoring data after Duterte took power.

However, Papa, Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s Margaret Taylor and the director of the NZ Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice, Rosslyn Noonan, admitted the human rights organisation has been unable to keep up with the killings “from day one”.

According to an undated Human Rights Watch report, more than 6000 Filipinos have been killed to date — the vast majority of whom are poor, urban slum dwellers — but this figure was at variance with its own License To Kill report in March of more than 7000 killings.

Repeated changes in police statistics have also confused the issue. Vice-President Leni Lobredo stated “more than 7000 killings” in a video shown to the Washington-based Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) Foundation on 17 March 2017. But the Philippines National Police has since claimed that not all the extrajudicial killings are drug-related.

Papa and representatives of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand said it was important to remember the “most vulnerable” people in the Philippines were being targeted and emphasised that whatever the number, one death was too many.

“What we’re imploring is that regardless of differing numbers, whether it is 9000, 5000 or 4000, the killings should stop.”

This statement came despite acknowledgement that killings in the Philippines are not a new phenomenon.

“It has never been a new phenomenon, but on this scale. 9000 in a few months?”

‘I will kill’
Papa, whose father was tortured for three months and who has never found an uncle thrown in prison under former President Ferdinand Marcos, said Duterte’s motives could not be questioned.

“He made a campaign promise: ‘I will kill.'”

Professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, said this was the notable difference between Duterte’s “war on drugs” compared with extrajudicial killings by previous elected governments since the Marcos dictatorship ended in 1986.

“The major difference that I see is that it’s an overt government policy on a scale that has not been seen before.” He said mere “suspects” with frequent wrong identifications were being routinely killed.

Noonan also picked up on Duterte’s tactic of dealing with alleged drug dealers.

“The truth of the matter is, this is the first time a president has got up there and actually said ‘I think we just need to kill these people’. Duterte’s not just said it once, he’s said it more than once.”

Despite the controversy, all parties agreed the killings of a vulnerable faction of society – suspected drug addicts – were fundamentally wrong.

Poorest, marginalised killed
“We’re seeing the very poorest and most marginalised being killed.”

In closing, Kris Gledhill of the Auckland University of Technology’s law school, said:

“If there is unnecessary killing, whether it’s 9000, whether it’s 12,000 – it is still a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is the bedrock of the rule of law and respect for human rights in the world.

“So when we’re arguing about numbers, which is perfectly proper to have an argument as to how bad the problem is, if there’s more than one unnecessary killing there’s still a problem and I’m sure that’s something we can all agree on.”

• The global monitoring agency Human Rights Watch reported more than 7000 killed in its comprehensive report on the killings in the Philippines since Dutertre came to power in its March report License To Kill.
• In Numbers: The Philippines’ ‘War on Drugs’ — Rappler
• Vice-President Leni Robredo’s message on extrajudicial killings
• Philippines ‘war on drugs’: Credible and impartial investigation needed – Amnesty International
• Philippines: ‘If you are poor, you are killed’
• Amnesty International reports on the Philippines this year
• ‘Respect human rights’ warning

Curbing illegal drugs “holistically” is now an explicit mandate as provided by the Philippines government’s 2017-2022 Development Plan, released last week.

Chapter 18 of the Development Plan says that government targets the significant reduction of “all forms of criminality and illegal drugs” through a “holistic program that involves combating not only crimes but also the corruption that leads to the perpetuation of such acts”.

The portion on curbing illegal drugs in the PDP comes at a time that President Rodrigo Duterte revived community visits to warn drug users and pushers, called locally as Oplan Tokhang.

At the same time, the Philippine National Police Director General Roland dela Rosa has announced yesterday the launching of “Operation Double Barrel Reloaded”.

The operation is said to be a “kinder, gentler” approach for law enforcers to confront the illegal drug problem, dela Rosa told reporters.

More than 7000 suspected users and pushers have been reported killed since Duterte assumed office on 1 July  2016.

These killings are linked to the rise of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that have been lambasted by critics — but shrugged off by Duterte supporters as not being the president’s policy —  that have criticised by international human rights groups, former heads of state, and the United Nations.

‘Suppressing the flow’
The Development Policy declares the country’s national anti-illegal drugs strategy included “suppressing the flow of illegal drugs supply through sustained law enforcement operations and reducing consumer demand for drugs and other substances”.

While the PDP mandated drug rehabilitation and massive preventive education and awareness programs, government is set to arrest and prosecute police personnel “involved in the use and trade of illegal drugs through counter-intelligence operations” prosecution.

Noting also the entry of Chinese, African and Mexican drug syndicates to the Philippines, government will also work with local and foreign law enforcement counterparts, as well as other international anti-drug organisations.

All these plans are part of a “holistic” approach to curb the drug problem, the PDP wrote. The plan also noted the data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that there are around four million drug users, and that 47 percent of villages (barangays) nationwide are “drug-affected.”

“The government has therefore adopted a holistic approach in addressing criminality and illegal drugs,” the PDP says. “As these initiatives are expected to result in high incidence of apprehensions, the government must also upgrade its jail faiclities and substantially increase drug rehabilitation centers.”

The PDP also says that “respect for human rights should be upheld and observed at all times” in all of law enforcers’ activities against criminality.

Recently, the US-based Human Rights Watch published a chapter on the Philippines and observed that Duterte could be liable to a lawsuit before local courts and even the International Criminal Court, the latter for alleged “crimes against humanity”.

Narcotics board concern
The UN-aligned International Narcotics Control Board (ICNB), in a March 2 release of its annual report, indicated the board’s concern about extrajudicial killings.

The board called on the Philippines government to “issue an immediate and unequivocal condemnation and denunciation of extrajudicial actions against individuals suspected of involvement in the illicit drug trade or drug abuse; to put an immediate stop to such actions; and to ensure that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice in full observance of due process and the rule of law”.

Extrajudicial action “is fundamentally contrary to the provisions of… three international drug control conventions,” the ICNB report said.

The Malacañang called the HRW report “thoughtless and irresponsible” when the group’s report wrote the country had a “human rights calamity” given rising extrajudicial killings — allegedly perpetrated by police.

Such a “human rights calamity,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, may have been averted due to actions by government.

Abella cited the more than 1.1 million pushers and users who voluntarily surrendered and the construction of drug rehabilitation centers.

“Is it a human rights calamity when the sheer scope and magnitude of an emerging narco-state have been exposed?” Abella said.

‘Ransom scheme’
Dela Rosa recently formed within the PNP the Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) that replaced the old Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) given the involvement of several of the latter group’s officers in a reported “Tokhang for ransom scheme”.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) indicated in its 2013 to 2016 figures that anti-illegal drug operations such as entrapments and arrests rose exponentially during the last six months of 2016 (the first six months of Duterte’s presidency).

In 2016, PDEA and partner law enforcement agencies had conducted 34,007 operations,  arrested 28,056 people, and filed 23,887 reports. These total figures are the highest over a four-year period (2013 to 2016).

Contrast the extended statements on illegal drugs 2017-2022 PDP to the 2011-2016 PDP provision on illegal drugs. The latter PDP wrote: “Modernise and upgrade facilities for law enforcers such as the PNP and the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) crime laboratories, forensic investigation facilities and equipment.

“Improve capacities of prosecutors and law enforcers particularly NBI agents in the investigation and prosecution of special cases involving economic or white-collar crimes such as money laundering, tax evasion, smuggling, human trafficking, violations of intellectual property rights and antitrust laws, illegal drugs and even cases involving extralegal killings and other human rights violations as well as violation of environmental laws.”

Jerome Villanueva is a graduate journalism student of the University of Santo Tomas. Assistant Professor Jeremaiah Opiniano supervises the undergraduate and graduate journalism degree programmes.

More 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan stories

A Philippines senator and staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has been arrested by law enforcement agents after charges were filed in court alleging she received money from drug dealers inside the country’s prisons.

Senator Leila de Lima is accused of orchestrating a drug trafficking ring when she was Justice Secretary during the 2010-2015 administration of Benigno Aquino.

“The truth will come out and I will achieve justice. I am innocent,” she told reporters shortly before law enforcers escorted her away from her office today.

De Lima, her former driver and bodyguard and a former national prison official were ordered to be arrested by a local court yesterday after a judge found merit in criminal charges filed by the Department of Justice last week.

De Lima has denied the charges, calling herself a victim of political persecution and saying she has long prepared herself to be the first “political prisoner” under the Duterte administration.

“While the issuance of the warrant of arrest is questionable, I do not have any plans to evade it,” she said, calling the order premature as the court has yet to hear the response from her lawyers.

READ MORE: Duterte accused of paying police to kill

She slept in her Senate office overnight then gave herself up to armed officers in flak jackets who put her in a van and drove into morning rush hour traffic apparently towards police headquarters.

Duterte, 71, won a presidential election last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.

Since his inauguration on June 30, an anti-drug drive has seen more than 7000 people killed over suspected drug links – with about 60 percent of the deaths carried out by unknown assassins.

‘State-inspired’ claims
De Lima has previously called for foreign intervention to put an end to the “state-inspired” extrajudicial murders, which she said have been instigated by Duterte since his election to power.

De Lima also led a series of Senate investigations over allegations that police officers were involved in the killings, and that hired killers were operating under orders from police.

Aries Aruguay, associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, said the senator will use her detention to highlight the president’s controversial policies.

“Senator de Lima has been taunting the Duterte administration to arrest her for months. She boldly says she is its fiercest critic… What is happening right now is she is really using this as her platform for her own politics,” Aurguay said.

De Lima’s supporters insist she is innocent and the charges are trumped up to silence one of Duterte’s most prominent critics.

In a statement, Senator Paolo Aquino condemned the “political persecution” of his fellow opposition Senate member.

“This arrest is purely political vendetta and has no place in justice system that upholds the rule of law. This is condemnable.

Victims of Duterte’s war on drugs
“We reiterate that an arrest based on trumped-up charges is illegal,” he said citing the “haste” in de Lima’s arrest.

De Lima previously claimed she was targeted because of her criticism of Duterte’s drug war policy.

During her time as head of the country’s human rights body, de Lima also led the investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings of an estimated 1000 drug suspects in Davao, while Duterte was mayor of the city.

When Duterte won as president in 2016, his feud with de Lima continued.

At one point he called on her to “hang herself”, after he ordered prosecutors to investigate the senator’s alleged links to the drug syndicate.

This week, de Lima branded the president a “sociopathic serial killer” after new allegations surfaced accusing Duterte of ordering drug killings in Davao.

• Duterte critic Leila de Lima vows to fight charges

Church officials and human rights activists believe Indonesia could be heading down the same path as the Philippines after the head of the country’s anti-narcotics agency recently issued a statement encouraging the shooting of drug traffickers trying to evade arrest.

They pointed to an incident on February 3 when National Narcotics Agency officers shot dead an unarmed Malaysian national as he tried to flee during a drug-smuggling bust in Jakarta.

The man allegedly tried to smuggle around 14 kg of crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia by boat.

“Do not hesitate to shoot drug traffickers, drug dealers and drug users,” agency head Budi Waseso had said in December last year.

That same month President Joko Widodo claimed that 15,000 people died every year because of drugs, and called on the agency to increase its efforts to crack down on the drugs trade.

Widodo promised to come down hard on drugs and vowed to execute all drug traffickers when coming to power in October 2014.

The church and rights activists have likened the rhetoric to that of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his war on drugs.

7000 killed in Philippines
At least, 7000 people have been killed in incidents linked to Manila’s anti-drug campaign, according to rights groups.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan, coordinator of the law and human rights division of the Indonesian Bishops’ Commission for Justice and Peace, called the National Narcotics Agency chief’s comments as incitement to “murder.”

“It is more cruel than the death penalty because criminals will be killed before they have a chance to be brought to court,” he said.

“Shooting people dead to prevent violence is counterproductive,” said Divine Word Father Paulus Rahmat, director of the U.N.-affiliated rights and social justice group Vivat International Indonesia.

Such a policy, he added, was against a person’s right to life, which could not be taken away by anyone including the state and law enforcement officers.

Natalius Pigai from the National Commission on Human Rights said law enforcement officers should question such comments from their leaders if they appeared to contravene the law.

“Do things according to the law otherwise it is abuse of power,” he said.

In its most strongly worded attack yet on the crackdown on drug pushers and users, the powerful Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said killing people was not the answer to trafficking of illegal drugs.

The Church said, in a pastoral letter that was read out in sermons yesterday, it was disturbing that many did not care about the bloodshed, or even approved of it.

“An even greater cause of concern is the indifference of many to this kind of wrong. It is considered as normal, and, even worse, something that [according to them] needs to be done,” the bishops said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by news agencies.

“An additional cause of concern is the reign of terror in many places of the poor. Many are killed not because of drugs. Those who kill them are not brought to account,” they said.

Duterte’s office strikes back
The Malacañang presidential palace has lashed back at the Church for the letter, blaming it for being “apparently out of touch” with the wishes of those who back the changes introduced by Duterte.

“The efforts of these church leaders might be put to better use in practical catechetics that build strong moral character among the faithful, and so contribute more to the reign of peace felt by ordinary citizens everywhere, especially those who are innocent of illegal activities,” Ernesto Abella, presidential spokesman, was quoted as saying by Philippine media.

The Catholic Church, to which more than 80 percent of Filipinos belong, has earned the ire of Duterte after bishops criticised the spate of killings linked to the president’s narcotics crackdown.

More than 7600 people have been killed since Duterte launched his anti-drugs campaign seven months ago, more than 2, in what police say were armed clashes during raids and sting operations.

Both the government and police have strenuously denied that extrajudicial killings have taken place.

• ‘No one can stop me,’ says Duterte
• INTERACTIVE: Who’s liable for the mounting death toll?

Human rights advocates, beware. You might just be next in “The Punisher’s” crosshairs.

President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to kill human rights activists critical of his take-no-prisoner tactic against illegal drugs, which has claimed the lives of some 5000 people allegedly involved in the narcotics trade.

In a speech in Malacañang on Monday night, Duterte said those accusing him of ordering the summary executions of drug personalities should be blamed if the country’s drug problem worsened.

“The human rights (defenders) said I ordered the killings. I told them, ‘OK. Let’s stop. We’ll let them (drug users) multiply so that when it’s harvest time, more people will die,” the President said at the inaugural switch-on of a coal-fired power plant.

“I will include you because you are the reason why their numbers swell,” he said in Filipino.

Duterte had been openly giving out grim warnings to drug users and pushers, but had also been consistent in denying insinuations that his words were veiled sanctions for extrajudicial killings.

He infamously earned the moniker “The Punisher” for advocating the vigilante murders of petty criminals when he was still the mayor of Davao City for 23 years.

‘Stage 2 cancer’
As in all his previous speaking engagements, the President reiterated the magnitude of the country’s drug problem, likening it to a “stage 2 cancer”.

“If the human rights (community) could not understand what I’m saying, if you’re that stupid, then I cannot do anything for you,” he said.

He lambasted the United States and the European Union yet again for raising their concern over his threats to kill suspected drug personalities.

“When was it a crime to say, ‘I will kill you’ in protecting my country? When did saying, ‘if you harm my country and my children, I will kill you’ become a crime?’ My God!” he said.

Duterte also mocked the European lawyers, saying “their brain is just like a pea.”

“Don’t believe in European lawyers. They are stupid, believe me. Listen to Filipino (lawyers),” he said.

‘Validated list’
Duterte then showed his audience a 25cm thick pile of documents, which contained the “validated list” of about 5000 public officials allegedly behind the illegal drug trade.

The Chief Executive said most of those benefitting from the illicit business were village officials who were earning “easy money”.

“(That’s why) I acceded to an election this year for the barangay captains. We would have lost to the money of the drug industry,” he said.

Duterte said he also showed the documents to former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during their one-on-one meeting.

The President has blamed Arroyo and his predecessor, former President Benigno Aquino III, for allowing the drug trade to proliferate during their incumbency.

“I am not trying to scare you,” he said as he presented the so-called “narco-list.”

“This is the drug industry of the Philippines. These are all the names,” he continued. “I showed this to (former) President Arroyo. I said, ‘Ma’am, we are in a bind. I really do not know how to (handle this). I surrender. I cannot do this.’”

Even if he wanted to kill all those on the list, Duterte said he “would not have the time and resources to do it.”

He said “narco-politics” was already existing in the Philippines “given the so many thousands of policemen and mayors involved” in the sale and distribution of illicit substances.

Marlon Ramos is a reporter on the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Today I’ve decided to out myself – as the journalist whose marital status was questioned by the President of the Philippines.

Initially I was reluctant to be identified as the “female reporter” in the story, who asked Rodrigo Duterte if he’d like to return to New Zealand, only to receive a question in return; “pag niyaya mo ako (if you invite me)… are you married?”

I was even more reluctant to put my byline to the piece, fearful of the inevitable backlash from members of the Filipino community who are firmly in the Duterte camp, accusing the Herald of using the “father” of their nation as a piece of “click-bait”.

But given the, as far as I know, non-existent pool of Filipino reporters in the mainstream media, and the fact that all who know me knew it was me, I figured it was time to stop hiding and just front up.

Cue in the token half-Filipina reporter, yet to divulge her real thoughts on his presidency, to try to sway him into a one-on-one interview.

After a six-hour stand-off, where I tried to sweet-talk staffers into convincing him to speak to me largely on the basis of my race and Tagalog-speaking abilities, the photographer and I were pretty close to throwing in the towel and calling it a day – especially given there were no other reporters in sight.

Stuck it out
Fortunately I stuck it out.

Not, as has been touted, to “ambush” him with ruthless journalistic intent in grabbing my “scoop”.

I was simply intrigued to meet the man whose crude banter and hardline stance on crime has managed to win over more than 16.5 million Filipinos – while much of the Western world decries his alleged lengthy record of human rights abuses.

Was he the villain I imagined him to be? Or was he truly the “father” of my mother’s homeland.

My preference would have been a proper sit-down to give him the chance to win me over, but alas getting in among the fans proved to be my only chance.

Initially his protective staffers foiled my attempts, getting security to gently brush my large microphone away.

But, just when I thought it was all over – I momentarily put my recording gear to the side and instead extended a polite hand out as I said the magic words: “Excuse me, po, Filipina ako, pwede mo ba ako kausapin? Journalist po ako sa New Zealand Herald, mayroon lang kami gusto itanong. [Excuse me, sir, I’m Filipina. I am a journalist with the New Zealand Herald, there are a few things we’d like to ask.”]

Shock factor?
I don’t know if it was the shock factor of seeing a tall, seemingly “white” girl speak fluent Filipino that stopped him in his tracks; if it was the Filipino fans, I’d been chatting to during the hours of waiting telling the guards I was one of “them”; or something else entirely.

Whatever it was, Duterte graciously stopped, shook my hand and allowed me to do my job.

My brain, still not quite believing he’d actually paused to answer my questions, also failed to switch back into English – I continued to fire questions at him in Tagalog, as he responded in English.

Perhaps it was the nerves, or Duterte’s accent, but I didn’t actually hear the question about my marital status at first – though I did nervously note at one point that everyone seemed to be laughing.

In fact it wasn’t till I got back to the office and replayed the interview that I realised what had unfolded – laughter among colleagues ensued and the quip became a talking point that was central to the final piece.

And while I understand the outrage in certain camps, personally I find it sits rather low on the list of Duterte’s alleged offences; his pledge to fill Manila Bay with 100,000 dead drug dealers, telling Obama to go to hell and burying former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in Manila’s Heroes Cemetery.

Beyond this, such quips are almost normative in the Filipino culture. My mother’s friends, my family and even complete strangers, men and women, will frequently comment on my height, my weight, my hair and yes – even my marital status (or lack-thereof).

However, I’ve learnt to have a tough skin and can take the jokes for what they are.
What concerns me more about Duterte, no matter his “good intentions”, is his cleaning methods.

The Kiwi in me, who was born and raised in this country, cannot conceive that allowing police, security forces and civilians to take the law into their own hands and kill alleged drug pushers is the right way to fix the country.

Yet, the other part of me, who has seen the weight of the problem that the nation and its people faces, understands the Filipinos’ desperation – for something that can bring about change and put an end to the decades of corruption that has plagued the country and created an increasingly large divide between the rich and the poor.

As jovial and as likeable he seems in person, in particular to his numerous fans keen to grab a selfie with him (or grab a kiss), Duterte represents the man not afraid to take the bull by the horns and crush it.

But only time will tell if the iron fist is truly the way to rule – I can only hope that beneath that tough exterior there is a man who actually has his country and his people’s best interests at heart – I’m not yet convinced.

New Zealand Herald reporter Corazon Miller is a journalist graduate of Auckland University of Technology and a fluent speaker of Tagalog. This article was originally published by The New Zealand Herald and is republished on Asia Pacific Report with permission. It follows Miller’s earlier interview with President Duterte.

Reporter wins over Duterte with some well-chosen words in Filipino + video

Duterte’s message to NZ: ‘How I wish I could have settled here’

New Zealand Herald editorial: Memo Minister – Duterte doesn’t quite cut it

OPINION: By Crispin Maslog

It looks like I am developing a love-hate relationship with you, Mr President. There is much to love about you, Sir, although I did not vote for you. To start with, you have shown political will.

As promised, you have pushed your all-out war against drugs. I love it, and so do 91 percent of other Filipinos. But I hate it when your police kill mostly the poor. The statistics are fluid, but I understand some 3000 have been killed so far. According to reports, many were not given a chance to give up peacefully but were gunned down on the run by police or by assets.

To your critics, I say: Wait three years before we praise or condemn your methods. I can appreciate the argument that if the disease is serious it needs urgent intervention, even surgery.

You showed guts when you said you would push hard on family planning. Previous presidents have all been afraid of the Catholic Church. Not you, Sir. You hit the nail on the head when you said the main reason we are poor is that we do not manage our family sizes. Our development rate cannot match our rate of population increase.

There are other things to love since you took office. Foremost among them are your peace efforts with the National Democratic Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front, and the Lumad, and your decision to go after the Abu Sayyaf. When you appointed leftist activists to the Cabinet, you showed guts. We pray for your success.

‘Let’s do it’ attitude
I like the “Let’s do it!” attitude among the Cabinet secretaries and the top-level officials of the government bureaucracy. To the list of people I admire in your Cabinet, please add Education Secretary Leonor Briones and Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, who are Silliman University alumni known for their religious values.

People are still waiting, however, for this culture to sink in to the lowest levels in the barangay.

We in the mass media are impressed by two things you have done or will do for us only three months into your presidency. These two things three previous administrations have not been able or were willing to do.

P-Noy made the campaign promise to pass the freedom of information bill to make government operations transparent.  After six years, nothing. In one month you issued an executive order mandating FOI in the executive branch.

Then you promised to turn PTV Network and the Public Information Authority into a Public Broadcasting System along the lines of BBC. This has been a favourite project of communication academe since I can remember, but commercial interests always blocked our attempts.

Now you have given us hope that sometime soon we can improve the quality of our broadcasting industry with competition from a public broadcasting system. The commercial teleseries have made us an under-informed but over-entertained society.

168 exceptions
But what worries me is that your communication office is listing 168 exceptions to the draft FOI law, which will definitely emasculate it.

Now for some unsolicited advice. I was not really intending to go into this, until US President Barack Obama called you a “colourful character,” in reaction to a diplomatic faux pax you committed.

Please, Mr President, control your temper. I saw that video of you gritting your teeth and swearing under your breath that if the US president asked you about extrajudicial killings at the Asean Summit, you would insult his mother. And, reading your lips, I saw that you actually did, even before you met him in Laos.

Sir, that is just not done in polite society. As President of the Republic, you cannot be the same “colourful character” you were as mayor of Davao City. Those are two different positions.

Earlier, you also verbally abused the Chief Justice. It is a good thing she did not answer back, but kept her cool, and you apologised. I give you brownie points for apologising. It takes a great man to own up to his mistakes.

Then you ran amuck and threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at a senator of the Republic. Even assuming she is guilty as charged, she does not have to be shamed on national television. It runs counter to our culture of saving face.

Innocence legal dictum
Besides, whatever happened to the legal dictum “presumed innocent until proven guilty”? It looks like the senator is now guilty until proven innocent.

Finally, Mr President, I hate your insistence on allowing Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Have you forgotten the abuses of the Marcos regime? I can understand why the millennials do not care if the guy is buried there or not. They do not know any better.

But our generation saw the human rights abuses and the systematic plunder of the Philippine economy by Marcos and his cronies. We know how he fabricated the story of his war medals to get US war veterans’ pension.

Now you want to honour him as a hero? Forget the legalities, Mr President. If anything else, the issue here is morality. It is immoral to bury an SOB in that cemetery. Pardon my French.

Crispin C. Maslog is a former journalist with Agence France-Presse and communication professor at Silliman University and University of the Philippines Los Baños. This commentary was first published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

• Philippines president’s ‘hit man’ allegations
  

By David Robie in Manila

Mounting calls for the Philippines president to be investigated over the allegations of human rights violations deepened over the weekend with revelations by a confessed hit man that at least 1000 extrajudicial killings had been ordered when the president was mayor of the southern city of Davao.

Fresh reports featuring the allegations were included in a cover story in the latest Time magazine, the Singapore Sunday Times and a new inquiry by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism into the so-called “Davao Death Squad”.

It is only 80 days since President Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office, and the PCIJ reports that he now “commands an armed contingent that is a hundred times bigger than it was in Davao, and his ‘enemy’ a thousand times more numerous”.

More than 3000 people have reportedly been killed so far in the so-called Project Tokhang – or “Double barrel” –  war on drugs. The president has also called for a six-month extension on his policy, claiming that the drugs business is largely “operated by people in government”.

Time magazine branded its report the “killing season” in the Philippines with a subheading of “Inside President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs”.

The Sunday Times correspondent in Manila, Raul Dancel, reported on some of the victims of the Davao killings, including a 62-year-old mother who lost four of her sons to the assassins.

‘Forged in blood’
The report was headlined “A peace that was forged in blood”.

Self-confessed hit man Edgar Matobato, now 57, told a Philippines Senate inquiry last week that he and other members of the so-called Davao Death Squad had killed some 1000 people in Davao City on the island of Mindanao on the orders of Duterte between 1998 and 2013.

Duterte was mayor of Davao for two decades and now his daughter Sara is the mayor there.

The PCIJ reported in its inquiry that Duterte’s deputies have denied Matobato’s allegations, with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II branding these claims as “old lies”. However, the president himself has not responded so far although he has made no secret in the past about his links with the death squads while denying direct responsibility.

The president’s chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, reportedly said he saw no reason for the President to respond to a “perjured witness”, adding that the Senate session was “not a hearing on extrajudicial killing, it was a case of extrajudicial lying”.

He said: “No amount of black propaganda, no amount of sinister ploy or plan will stop the President from his relentless campaign against the drug menace and terrorism.”

In one television programme during the presidential election campaign, Duterte declared: “I am the death squad? True. That’s true.” But he later shrugged this off as merely “teasing”.

Davao killings
As PCIJ says, “there is no denying that Duterte’s reign in Davao City had been marked by numerous extrajudicial killings, with Davao media attributing at least 150 deaths there from 1995 to 2001 alone to the DDS [Davao Death Squad] and then Mayor Duterte’s war against drugs”.

According to PCIJ’s research via police and judicial records, the president’s “expanded war” has resulted in a death toll that is “10 times higher within a much shorter period; an average of 38 persons killed a day, or over 3200 in the last 80 days”.

Matobato’s testimony before the Senate inquiry named Senator Leila de Lima as being on the target list while she had been chair of the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights. (De Lima herself is also at the centre of allegations in a separate Congress inquiry opening this week).

Matobato said he and others in the death squad had been waiting to ambush De Lima in 2009 but she had not ventured into the undisclosed hilly area to inspect a suspected mass grave site where they planned to open fire.

The former hit man alleged before the Senate inquiry that he and others in the liquidation squad took orders from Duterte and killed about 1000 suspected criminals and opponents of the mayor and the Duterte.

Matobato admitted that he had personally carried out at least 50 of the abductions and killings, including an attack on a suspected kidnapper who was hogtied and fed alive to a crocodile.

“Our job was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers. That’s what we did. We killed people almost every day,” Matobato said.

Journalist assassinated
In one of the most serious claims, the former hit man also alleged that Duterte had had Davao broadcast journalist Jun Pala, a vocal critic of the president when he was Davao mayor, killed.

Responding to the testimony, one of the most influential national dailies, Philippine Daily Inquirer, declared in an editorial that the serious allegations ought to be thoroughly investigated but with “caution and scepticism”.

Until then, noted the newspaper, the president enjoyed the presumption of innocence, “as he must”.

“But herein lies the eternal paradox of our times: the demand for fairness and due process is quickly made when it applies to the powers that be; there is no question, of course, that they deserve it,” said the editorial.

“Those killed so far in the war on drugs – the padyak drivers, the petty pushers in fraying flip-flops, the denizens of dark alleys yelling surrender – did not have the luxury of being afforded the same.

“And here Philippine society is today, in an ever-deepening rabbit hole of national cognitive dissonance.”

The PCIJ has revealed that Duterte has not signed, and the Office of the President has not released, any executive order to define his role and accountability for the war on drugs

‘I will protect you’
But the President has publicly declared to policemen that they are acting under his presidential protection: “I will protect you. I will not allow one policeman or one military to go to jail.”

According to the PCIJ, as at September 18 the latest national Philippine police report cited:

• Killed in police operations – 1140
• Killings by unidentified gunmen “under investigation” – 1391
• Drug pusher suspects arrested – 17,428
• “Surrendered” – 714,803 (661,737 alleged drug users and 53,066 alleged drug pushers)
• Houses “visited” – 1,041,429

The PCIJ said: “Whichever is the correct PNP count, these numbers best the casualty tally during the 14 years of martial law under the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos; from 1972 to January 1981, Amnesty International had recorded a total of 3240 persons killed, 34,000 tortured, and 70,000 imprisoned in the Philippines.”

Human Rights Watch and other groups have called for a full United Nations inquiry into the Philippines extrajudicial killings following the detailed testimony from former hit man Matobato.

But calls within the Philippines for impeachment by the powerful Liberal Party were dealt a blow when Vice-President Leni Robredo (who belongs to the party) declared that she hoped no impeachment process would take place, adding it was destined to fail through lack of numbers in Congress.

Despite political differences, she said, it was the duty of every citizen to support the elected President.

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie is in the Philippines on sabbatical.

• The PCIJ investigation
• Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial
• Crispin Maslog on a love-hate relationship with President Duterte

Human rights activists in the Philippines have launched a movement to demand the immediate end of summary executions of suspected illegal drug users and peddlers in the country.

“We urge [President Rodrigo Duterte] to desist from inflammatory rhetoric that can only turn this country into one vast killing field,” read a statement from the In Defence of Human Rights and Dignity Movement, or iDefend.

The group urged the president, who threatened to kill all illegal drug users and peddlers, not to make his war on drugs a “war on human rights”.

“No matter who is killed or whose rights are violated, they are human beings with rights and dignity and that human rights are for all, especially for the poor, the marginalised and the vulnerable,” said the group.

The group expressed alarm over the growing number of people killed in recent weeks as a result of the government’s “all-out war” against illegal drugs.

Reports of the extrajudicial killings range cite 700 in three months. The Philippine Inquirer “Kill List” is regarded as the most accurate listing of the murders.

“It is high time that we speak, we raise our voices so we will live,” said Franciscan Sister Crescencia Lucero of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines.

‘No dictatorship’
“We have to defend hard-earned democracy and not let our government become a dictatorship,” the nun said.

iDefend convenor Rose Trajano of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines said Duterte’s call for the killing of illegal drug users “only creates a climate of fear, insecurity and helplessness”.

“We can’t allow the abnormal situation to become normal. We need to have unrelenting courage and determination to defend and to advance our human rights,” said Trajano.

Pastor Ephraim Guerrero of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines also called on the government to “save its people from perils of disasters and anti-social activities”.

Some 30 civil society groups and human rights organisations have already joined iDefend and vowed to monitor the government’s human rights obligations.

“If the government is really sincere in curbing crime and drugs trade, it should do it by introducing policies that will alleviate poverty, stamp out corruption at all levels of government and reform the criminal justice system,” the group said.

Jimmy Domingo is a contributor to UCANews.

• More than 700 people killed in Philippine ‘war in drugs’
• Philippine Inquirer ‘kill list’
• Dead or alive: Is the Philippines’ war-on-drugs out of control?

The Indonesian government has carried out executions of four convicted drug traffickers, Al Jazeera reports from Jakarta.

The Attorney-General’s office had said earlier on Thursday that 14 people, including foreigners, would be executed “soon”.

The convicts were shot by firing squad at the Nusa Kambangan penal island shortly after midnight on Friday local time (1700 GMT on Thursday) amid pouring rain, according to TV reports.

Deputy Attorney-General Noor Rachmad also confirmed the executions to reporters, according to the AFP news agency. But Rachmad did not say why the 10 other drug convicts were not executed.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said among those who were executed were two Nigerian citizens, a South African citizen and one Indonesian.

“All the others are still waiting their trials to be reexamined,” Vaessen said. “It’s not very clear what actually were the last conclusions why these executions didn’t take place. But the government is saying it has something to do with legal issues.”

The lawyer of Pakistani prisoner Zulfikar Ali earlier told Vaessen that his client was not among those who had reportedly been executed.

‘Lot of pressure’
Al Jazeera’s Vaessen said there had been “a lot of pressure” until the last minute to stop the executions.

The executions were the third set carried out since President Joko Widodo took office in October 2014.

Widodo’s two-year-old administration will have executed more people than were executed in the previous decade.

Fourteen were put to death last year. But one prisoner, a woman from the Philippines, was spared the death penalty at the last minute.

The European Union and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had called on Indonesia to impose an immediate moratorium on executions, and the Indian and Pakistani governments also made urgent efforts to save two nationals among the condemned.

The Indonesian government said the death penalty is necessary for narcotics-related crimes because the country was facing a drugs epidemic, particularly affecting young people.

But critics argue that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent and some have also questioned the accuracy of the government’s drug abuse statistics.

The government of Jokowi’s predecessor did not carry out executions between 2009 and 2012, but resumed them in 2013.

• The long cruel reach of Indonesia’s death penalty
• Indonesian executions ‘will put Jokowi on wrong side of history’