(Eagle News)–Senator Leila de Lima called on the international community to “continue condemning and making the Duterte administration accountable for its murderous war on drugs that lacks moral and legal justification.”
De Lima made the call in a statement read during the 61st Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, and which was sent to the media on Saturday.
“Let us all say no to extrajudicial killings committed in its name and demand accountability for this government’s failure to adhere to the rule of law and human rights,” De Lima, who is detained on drug-related charges filed against her in connection with her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she was justice secretary, said.
She said President Rodrigo Duterte has “failed to see the country’s drug problem as a public health issue which needs an entirely different set of approaches,” and was “bent on resolving the drug problem in his own unjustified way, at the expense of the rule of law and human rights and despite the lessons learned by countries which adopted the same hard stance against the drug menace and failed.”
For instance, she said under the administration’s 2017 Year-End Key Accomplishments Report, the Department of the Interior of Local Government reported that a total of 20,322 had been killed under the war on drugs.
She said the war in particular “has always targeted and victimized low-level dealers and users among the marginalized sectors of the society.”
“Despite the continuing death toll, only a handful is being investigated and prosecuted by the authorities,” she said.
“How far will my country regress in the name of Duterte’s war on drugs? Until when do we reach the tipping point and say, as a collective people, enough is enough?” she added.
President Duterte has given the lead role to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the war on drugs, following criticisms there were policemen using the war as a pretext to commit crimes.
PDEA said the number of fatalities in the drug war has decreased since they took the helm from the Philippine National Police.
