Rights group flags PHL drug program to Japan

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned the Japanese government from extending financial assistance to the Philippine government’s campaign against illegal drugs, saying Tokyo might end up funding potentially abusive drug rehabilitation services here.

Last April, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Department of Health (DoH) signed a P826 million (¥1.85 billion) agreement to enhance rehabilitation facilities and treatment protocols of drug dependents in the Philippines.

The project, Consolidated Rehabilitation of Illegal Drug Users (CARE), intends to “provide an opportunity for drug dependents to reduce the risk of relapse, walk through a path of recovery and integrate them back into society.”

But in its letter dated April 28 — a copy of which was released by the advocacy group on May 17 — HRW expressed to Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and JICA President Shinichi Kitaoka “several concerns about this offer of assistance.”

Based on its “extensive research” in Asia, HRW said “treatment centers” located inside military camps in some Southeast Asian countries “consisted of forced labor and military drills rather than evidence-based treatment interventions; that torture and ill-treatment were rampant.”

The group added that patients in these facilities “were detained at these camps without any kind of due process.”

Citing the China-funded mega drug rehabilitation center within the Fort Magsaysay military base outside Manila, HRW qualified that rehabilitation services in the said facility “may be similar” to those that the group documented elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

“In that case, Japanese funds would end up supporting serious human rights abuses rather than appropriate health services,” HRW told Messrs. Kishida and Kitaoka, adding that JICA and DoH have yet to disclose how the Philippine government will spend those funds.

“The Philippines desperately needs voluntary community-based drug dependence treatment services that comport with international standards and human rights principles,” the group also said.

“We urge you to ensure that Japanese funding for drug rehabilitation supports the establishment or expansion of these kinds of programs.”