Malacañang’s pronouncement that human rights organizations are being used by drug lords to derail Duterte’s war on drugs is both malicious and dangerous. It exposes human rights defenders to the murderous violence of Duterte’s death squads, as Malacañang has now placed them in equal footing with suspected drug offenders.
This pronouncement also further reveals Duterte’s anti-human rights worldview, now ironically espoused by no less than the former human rights lawyer-turned Duterte death squad apologist Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
That this accusation is patently baseless propaganda is shown in the subsequent statements of both the PNP and PDEA that they have no evidence to support Malacañang’s ‘expose’. In short, the accusation is nothing but an irresponsible speculation blurted out from the presidential podium, the same way most lies and fake news are now being propagated from the Palace.
Roque, Cayetano, and Panelo no longer care if they lie in defense of Duterte’s policy of summary executions which has so far claimed more than 20,000 lives as of 2017. The truth no longer means anything to these three government officials, so they might as well openly fabricate and propagate the most absurd and hilarious accusations they can come up with.
One thing is clear though. While linking every individual, organization, and institution that has come out against the murderous drug war to drug lords, Malacañang remains deathly silent on the 6.4B shabu smuggling scandal that has implicated Duterte’s son and son-in-law.
All of a sudden, human rights groups are in cahoots with drug lords, while Polong Duterte, Mans Carpio, Small Abellera, and Tita Nanie remain uninvestigated and untouched by the DOJ, the PNP, and PDEA.
Add to that the DOJ’s dismissal of the charges against known drug lords Peter Lim, Kerwin Espinosa, and Peter Co. Here we are talking about a drug war, but instead of going after drug lords and smugglers, Malacañang is going after human rights groups.
Roque, Cayetano, and Panelo want to implicate human rights groups because until now, Malacañang has nothing to show for Duterte’s drug war. It has nothing to show because it is a fake and hypocritical drug war, in the same way that Duterte’s drug war in Davao was fake. These drug wars are only authentic in one aspect—in the murder and summary execution of thousands of human beings whose perpetrators were never brought to court and never tried for any crime whatsoever.
What is this drug war for then when government coddles drug lords in prison, absolves drug lords out of prison, and whitewashes investigations on drug smugglers? What is this drug war but a cover for the witchhunting and intimidation of those who refuse to bow to Duterte’s tyranny, then in Davao, now in the entire country?
In the same way that the drug war was used to imprison me, intimidate and threaten local government officials, witchhunt enemies, and demonize the opposition, it is now being used to attack human rights advocates and organizations.
The script is already so overused, Malacañang needs a new scriptwriter. Creative ones. Roque, Cayetano, and Panelo are already starting to be boring.
Nakakasawa at nakakasuka na sila.###