Trump, Duterte flagged in Amnesty Int’l report

“ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT” political figures, among them, President Rodrigo R. Duterte of the Philippines, caused the global deterioration of human rights in 2016 that made the world “darker” and a “more unstable place” — Amnesty International (AI) said in its annual report released on Wednesday.

Based on five regional overviews and a survey of 159 countries and territories, the London-based advocacy group qualified that 2016 saw human rights under “vigorous and relentless assault from powerful narratives of blame, fear and scapegoating, propagated by those who sought to take or cling on to power at almost any cost.”

Aside from Mr. Duterte, AI named US President Donald J. Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among others, as politicians “wielding politics of demonization that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanizes entire groups of people to win the support of voters.”

“In 2016, governments turned a blind eye to war crimes, pushed through deals that undermine the right to claim asylum, passed laws that violate free expression, incited murder of people simply because they use drugs, legitimized mass surveillance, and extended draconian police powers,” the report read in part.

In the Philippines, the advocacy group cited “state-sanctioned” killings under Mr. Duterte’s brutal drug war and the planned revival of the death penalty — in contradiction to a treaty to which the Philippines is a signatory — as causing the “erosion” of human rights in the country.

It was during the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s that AI became a familiar institution in the Philippines, as it monitored the human rights abuses then. The London-based group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977.

AI also flagged how human rights “defenders” and journalists in the Philippines were “targeted and killed by unidentified gunmen and armed militia,” although this trend from the previous administrations of Gloria MacapagalArroyo and Benigno S. C. Aquino III has not been reported much in the present administration.

In response, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in a statement that AI’s report “does not reflect the sentiments of the majority of Filipinos,” citing Mr. Duterte’s high ratings in recent surveys.

“We guarantee that the State does not condone extrajudicial killings perpetrated by common criminals wrongly credited in news reports as part of police operations,” Mr. Abella said. “The Duterte administration will continue to implement political and socioeconomic reforms aimed at improving the lives of ordinary Filipinos.”

In its press conference in Manila on Wednesday — following AI’s press conference in Paris to present its report — AI Philippines head Jose Noel Olano urged the government to “immediately” conduct an “independent, impartial, and effective” investigation into the drug-related killings under Mr. Duterte’s drug war.

He also advised people not to expect the state to “step in and ensure justice without concerted pressure.”

“It is in these times that courageous voices are needed,” he said.

Early this month, AI came out with a report concluding that many drug-related deaths in the country were summary executions directly implicating cops or assassins paid by them.

The firebrand leader has launched his bloody war on drugs upon taking office in June last year. Meanwhile, the police has placed the number of “killed drug personalities,” apart from “deaths under investigation,” at more than 2,500, but the fatality count in the media is almost thrice that figure.

Mr. Duterte recently ordered the disbandment of the Philippine National Police-Anti Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG), describing the police force implementing his crime war as “corrupt to the core,” following the October 2016 kidnapping-murder of a Korean businessman, which has compromised the war on drugs.

Meanwhile, Mr. Abella has also responded to recent remarks by outgoing British Ambassador Asif Ahmad criticizing the human rights situation in the Philippines.

“With all due respect to the British Ambassador, Mr. Asif Ahmad’s remark that ‘change has come in the Philippines but not in a good way’ does not reflect the true sentiment of the common Filipino,” Mr. Abella said. He added: “More than 8 of 10 Filipinos trust the President and the same number is satisfied with his administration’s performance in its campaign against illegal drugs and appreciates how it handles criminality.

“International financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and credit watcher Standard & Poor’s, increased their growth projections for the Philippine economy in 2017. The Asian Development Bank likewise backs our 10-point socioeconomic agenda and plans to finance our infrastructure projects and other development initiatives.

“One wishes diplomats were more familiar with life beyond the rarefied atmosphere of gated villages.”