Community blockades aimed at stopping COVID-19 in the Philippines have failed to curb President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, a Human Rights Watch researcher said Wednesday.
If anything, killings related to the anti-drug crusade spiked “dramatically” shortly after Duterte ordered quarantines for many densely populated areas, said Carlos Conde, a Philippine researcher for HRW.
“Police killed 50% more people between April and July 2020 than in the last 4 months,” Conde said on hrW’s website.
The New York-based human rights organization said it had analyzed government statistics and found that another 155 people had died in “alleged drug raids” in the past four months, despite quarantine restricting movements.
On the other hand, “the police killed another 103 people between December 2019 and March 2020,” it indicates.
The national police responded to BenarNews’ request for comment on Wednesday, but before this week, the country’s new police chief, General Camilo Cascolan, denied that extrajudicial executions (EJK) existed in the country.
“First, if you have this idea, come to me, let’s investigate. Secondly, there is no EJK,” he said, according to the Philippine state news agency.
Last year, the National Police admitted that around 6,600 suspected traffickers and drug addicts were killed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Officials said many were killed in clashes with officials after they allegedly refused to surrender.
In June 2019, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that more than 8,600 more people had been killed.
Despite these deaths, one case, the murder of teenager Kian Lloyd delos Santos in the metropolitan domain of Manila resulted in the conviction of his killers, three policemen.
Rights defenders killed
In addition, activists noticed an uptick in the pandemic of killings of human rights defenders, most of whom have been accused through state security forces of having ties to the communist movement. Since 13 March, at least nine activists have been killed, according to Cristina Palabay. , Secretary General of the Karapatan Human Rights Alliance.
Two of the most notable deaths occurred within a week of another.
On August 10, Randall Echanis, a representative of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines representing the rebels in the peace talks, was found stabbed to death in his rented space in the Metro Manila area.
On August 17, Zara Alvarez, who worked as Karapatan’s legal assistant and fitness advocate for the network, was shot and killed on her way home to Bacolod City, on the central island of Negros.
Since his takeover in June 2016, Duterte has been the subject of an investigation through the International Criminal Court (ICC) into drug-related deaths. In addition, experts from the United Nations and member states called on the Philippine government to authorize an independent foreign investigation. on alleged human rights violations in the country.
The president remained provocative and refused to allow foreign investigators, even threatening some with physical violence. It also got rid of the Philippines from the ICC.
HRW said it hoped the Philippines “will continue to deny the allegations rather than offer a constructive response” when the UN Human Rights Council meets next month to address allegations of rights violations in the country.
“But as the government’s own statistics show, the atrocities of the ‘war on drugs’ have worsened, even as the country is suffering the most in the region from the pandemic,” he said.
The Philippines has reported more than 245,000 cases and nearly 4,000 deaths since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to disease experts at US-based Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 27. 6 million cases and more than 898,000 deaths. .