The number of human rights violations in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte is “incomparable” to past administrations, says a prominent rights activist.
“First, no particular administration has been spared of human rights violation. Every administration committed its fair share of human rights violation. But currently the rate and the scale is incomparable, it’s higher than other administrations,” Commission on Human Rights spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said.
She noted that the human rights advocacy grouo is currently investigating 3,295 cases of alleged extrajudicial killing.
The group is also looking into the killings of journalists, lawyers, judges, activists, and other people vulnerable to violence by Duterte’s government.
“Never has there been a time that we have been so overwhelmed with the number of cases we are handling right now,” she said.
“First, no particular administration has been spared of human rights violation. Every administration committed its fair share of human rights violation. But currently the rate and the scale is incomparable, it’s higher than other administrations,” De Guia said.
She said Duterte’s influence among among police and officials plays a key role in encouraging violence.
“Words matter. We have repeatedly said that he is very influential to his constituents and even the government officials under him and therefore, we would want the highest ranking official to be very circumspect with his language to encourage accountability,” she said.
Police abuse also took a large boost from Duterte’s promises to protect officers, she noted.
“It is the reason for impunity, killing is normalized. We hope that the PNP (Philippine National Police) will stay true to the PNP manual of operations,” she said adding police was not cooperating with investigations into such cases.
