On December 29, Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte openly accused the US State Department of working with a local political group to plot his ouster from power.
This developed as at least three US senators sent a letter to the State Department on December 22 expressing grave concern over the rising death toll in Duterte’s war on illegal drugs, reports ABS-CBN News.
The three US legislators include Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Party Senators Edward Markey and Christopher Coons, who all claimed that the Philippine President’s campaign against illegal drugs is just a disguise for mass atrocities.
Interestingly, none of the three American senators have ever been to the Philippines since Duterte officially became President on June 30, 2016, and their information was merely based on media reports.
To dub the campaign as a disguise for mass atrocities is also media sensationalism at its best. There is no such thing as mass atrocities happening in the Philippines and there is certainly no truth to claims that Filipinos are being scared of the campaign of the President to rid the country of illegal drugs.
Basing it on the President’s supposed admission
In the letter of the three American senators to the US State Department, they cited the issues of the escalating number of deaths in Duterte’s drug war, his recent admission of personally killing criminals, and his vow to carry out more killings.
They added that rather than address the systemic problems related to the country’s drug crisis, the administration should invest in treatment programs, or approach the epidemic with an emphasis on the health and well-being of the Philippine people.
They also claimed that Duterte has instead pledged to kill another 20,000 to 30,000 people who are suffering from a drug use disorder, details GMA News.
The senators asked the US State Department to act on its request for information related to US law enforcement assistance to the Philippines as well as Washington’s efforts, if there are, to remedy the drug problem in the Philippines.
The senators cited the Leahy Law, which was enacted to prohibit assistance to any unit of a foreign country’s security forces should credible information indicate that they have perpetrated gross human rights violations.
They added that the serious allegations of extrajudicial killings that have surfaced in the course of President Duterte’s war on drugs raise serious concerns about the legality and appropriateness of the $32 million in dedicated funds.
US Secretary of State John Kerry pledged during his recent visit to Manila a $32-million funding for training and other law enforcement assistance. The senators now want to scrutinize how these funds will be used in light of the developments in Duterte’s campaign.
Duterte has previously stated that the Philippines is now home to 3.7 million drug users and over one million of them has already surrendered to authorities since his campaign against illegal drugs started nearly six months ago.
A one-sided view of the story
What seems to be bothersome to most Filipinos in the issue is that the international media are being made to believe that there is a serious problem of human rights violation in the Philippines as a result of Duterte’s drug war. It’s clearly a one-sided view of the entire story.
On the contrary, a good number of Filipinos now feel more secured that the streets are already rid of roaming drug users and pushers because these are the very same people who contribute to rising criminality in the country.
The problem also lies with the fact that some oligarchs in the Philippines who previously supported the political party of the former President cannot accept the fact that Duterte won by a landslide during the May 2016 elections, outpointing his nearest candidate by over seven million votes.
The losing political party has obviously decided to do everything in its power to oust Duterte from power because the sitting Vice President of the Philippines, Leni Robredo, is a member of their party. If and when Duterte is ousted from power, Robredo becomes President by ascension and the political party of the former President returns to power.
Unfortunately for the losing political party, the majority of the Filipino people, the Philippine military, and the Philippine police are supportive of President Duterte so any attempts to remove him from power through extra-legal means may not happen anytime soon.
That’s in addition to the fact that the party of President Duterte holds the majority in the Philippine Senate and the Congress so impeachment would be improbable.
Duterte is not corrupt either so the only loophole that the political opposition is looking at is by sensationalizing claims of human rights violations or the so-called extra-judicial killings.
The problem lies in the fact that most local media are also owned by oligarchs who favor the party of the former President and are against Duterte. These media outlets have sensationalized daily deaths and connect them to the President’s drug war.
A good number of deaths have been claimed by the local media to be part of Duterte’s war against illegal drugs even though they are not the cases most of the time. So when international media picks up the story, it becomes even more sensationalized as if they have verified their stories on the ground itself.
There is no case of mass atrocities in the Philippines. There are no state-sponsored killings of drug users or addicts as espoused by Duterte. What he ordered the police is to arrest all drug users, pushers, and traders, and those who put up resistance during the arrest, typical with most criminals, have to fight it out with the police.
And there is where most deaths happen. Interestingly, most local and international media are not reporting the police casualties in such operations, preferring to highlight the deaths of criminals instead of the law enforcers.