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| Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte |
By Audrey Morallo
MANILA, Philippines — A slew of condemnations greeted the rounds of drug-related deaths that occurred on the streets of Manila and Bulacan in the past two days, with an international human rights watchdog saying that the government’s bloody war on drugs was “plumbing new depths of barbarity.”
Vice President Leni Robredo also criticized the deaths on Thursday, expressing outrage over the deaths that President Rodrigo Duterte praised a day before.
James Gomez, Amnesty International’s director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said that the deaths proved that the “lawless ‘war on drugs’” had not stopped as police were “routinely gunning down suspects,” in violation of the right to life and due process.
“No one is bearing the brunt of this brutality more than the poorest communities in areas such as Bulacan province, a hotspot for extrajudicial executions since the president took power, and the scene of 21 of yesterday's 32 killings,” Gomez said.
AI also warned that the bloody campaign seemed to have no end in sight as the president recently admitted that he would not be able to solve the Philippines’ drug-related problems during his six-year term, which ends in 2022.
The president, during last year’s campaign, promised that he would end the problem in three to six months, but he had an about face on this and extended the deadline at least twice.
AI reiterated its call for a United Nations-led investigation into the deaths.
Read the full story at PhilStar