Speaking in London, Leni gropes for words on human rights in PH

Vice President Leni Robredo reaffirmed her commitment to, what she termed as, the “real struggle” in the campaign against human rights abuses under the Duterte administration as she herself struggled for words to express the real situation in the country.

Speaking at the London School of Economic and Political Science in the United Kingdom last Saturday, Robredo said: “When I say it’s real, there’s been so many roadblocks as far as the fight for human rights (in the Philippines) is concerned, and those roadblocks, we’ve not allowed them to... not allowed them to constrain us in what we’re doing,” Robredo said.

“But you know, we’ve been looking for avenues to... if you know what I mean, to be more creative. And I think the crucial thing here is that we can’t give up. We have to continue doing the pushback,” she added.

This was Robredo’s reply to a question at the forum she attended in which she was asked about the human rights situation in the Philippines linked to the government’s war on drugs.

The Vice President groped for answers at first as she was mindful of the backlash her statement may cause.

One of the international students asked Robredo if “there is anything at all that the Vice President’s office can do in order to stop the killings.”

“Human rights. Uhm…,” Robredo responded at the forum, a transcript of which was sent to Manila-based reporters. Her initial response elicited laughter from the audience.

Robredo had become circumspect during the forum in her statements, careful not to antagonize President Duterte.

The Vice President admitted she “struggled with words” because she didn’t want people would “shift the focus on real issues” to her supposed ambition to replace the President.

“There has been a lot of debate on how many people have been killed. I made a statement before the UN before, which put me in a lot of hot water, just because of the number of people who have died,” she said.

“But you know, what is sad about this is that one death is one death too many, but the debate has shifted to ‘It’s not 12,000. It’s just 3,000. It’s just 3,000.’ And 3,000 deaths is 3,000 deaths too many,” the Vice President explained.

“I was a human rights lawyer for a long time and the way we’re doing things before, it seems that they are not working now. So it’s been a struggle. And the struggle is real,” she said.

Robredo, a lawyer, has been very vocal against human rights violations, particularly extrajudicial killings amid the ongoing drug war in the country.

Speaking at the forum, Robredo acknowledged it would “take a lot of innovativeness and more imagination” to promote human rights in the Philippines.