Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the Philippines expect due process in the US Congress’ human rights commission on the drug war by the Duterte administration on July 20.
“If they’re gonna talk about human rights, what we expect also is due process. So, will they look at the facts only from the critics, or will they also accept the facts from the government?” Cayetano said on the sidelines of the ANC Leadership Forum on July 19.
“Will they send someone here who will prejudge us then make a report there? Or will they send someone with open eyes and work out these comments?” he added.
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He underlined the importance of due process as part of basic human rights.
The US House of Representatives’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission will conduct a probe on July 20 on “the human rights consequences of the ‘war on drugs’ currently underway in the Philippines.”
Cayetano said a US senator’s adviser has assured him that the investigation will be “balanced.”
“If you look at it as a balanced hearing, that’s almost never reported kasi what’s a balanced hearing? Either there’s no hearing or there’s a hearing on human rights. That’s why I’m saying, going back to forums like this, we have to realize that the news has changed,” he said.
“We have to realize that the news sometimes is simply reporting and does not mean to be biased but they also have to have a point of view in the reporting,” he added.
Cayetano said criticisms are expected when it comes to anti-drug campaigns.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission has invited resource persons to study the implementation of the Philippine government’s war on drugs and extrajudicial killings allegedly related to the campaign. They invited I-Defend Philippines Spokesperson Ellecer Carlos, Human Rights Watch Asia Division Deputy Director Phelim Kine, and Amnesty International Senior Crisis Advisor Matthew Wells.
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Some American senators proposed to restrict exporting US arms to the Philippines because of the reported human rights abuses related to the drug war.
According to the commission, “reports of extrajudicial killings raise questions about how the United States should balance its concerns for protecting human rights and the rule of law with its desire to maintain the bilateral alliance and continue to pursue other shared goals.”
Duterte has slammed the US for criticizing his war on drugs, vowing to keep an independent foreign policy that aligned the Philippines with China and Russia.
Kine said on ANC that the US Congress probe shows “the deepening international concern at what is nothing less than a human rights calamity that President Rodrigo Duterte has unleashed on the Philippines in the guise of this so-called war on drugs.”
He called the drug war a “war on the poor [as it has] killed untold thousands of people and has resulted in horrific overcrowding of detention facilities and jails.”
Kine added that the campaign killed the “freedom of expression” in the Philippines since those who opposed Duterte’s drug war are usually harassed or intimidated in public and online.
He said he hoped for the probe to shed light on Duterte’s ‘abusive’ drug war.
Sources: ( news.abs-cbn.com )
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