UN official flags ‘shoot to kill’ policy, lack of credible investigations in report
A TOP United Nations (UN) official who has been critical of the Philippines’ drug war on the watch of President Rodrigo R. Duterte has flagged anew the human rights situation in the country, citing Mr. Duterte’s “open support for a shoot-to-kill policy regarding suspects.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, reporting on Monday, Sept. 11, to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on human rights conditions worldwide, also noted regarding the Philippines “the apparent absence of credible investigations into reports of thousands of extrajudicial killings, and the failure to prosecute any perpetrator.”
“( S) uspicion of extrajudicial killings has now become so widespread that the initials EJK have reportedly become a verb in some communities — as in “he was EJKed,” said Mr. Zeid, who is on his last year in his current mandate.
Mr. Zeid cited, among other recent developments, the “killing of a schoolboy who was dragged into an alley and shot in the head by plains-clothed policem(e)n,” apparently referring to the murder last August of Grade 11 student of Kian Loyd delos Santos on the watch of Caloocan City police.
The UN official also flagged Mr. Duterte’s “threat to bomb schools for indigenous children,” as well as the continued detention of Senator Leila M. de Lima, a leading critic of Mr. Duterte’s drugs war after Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV.
P1,000 BUDGET FOR CHR
“Many human rights defenders who are the honor of their country face a growing number of death threats, and I call on the government to ensure they are accorded full protection and the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without reprisals,” Mr. Zeid said.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives on Tuesday realized an earlier threat by its speaker, Pantaleon D. Alvarez, to pass a measly P1,000 for the Commission on Human Rights’ ( CHR) budget next year. The House voted 119-32 to approve the measure. — with Rosemarie A. Zamora and interaksyon.com