HRW grills Philippines presidential candidates on human rights policies
Philippines presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte has been accused of a number of human rights violations.
23rd March 2016
THE five presidential hopefuls in the upcoming election in the Philippines have been asked to share their positions on major human rights issues.
International human rights NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW)said it sent each of the candidates a 10-question survey on Monday and will post their responses on the website by late April.
HRW Asia director Brad Adams said the country’s next president would inherit immense human rights issues that required leadership and commitment.
“Filipino voters should demand to hear from their presidential candidates exactly what they would do to protect and strengthen human rights.”
The questionnaire seeks to get the candidates’ stance on topics such as “death squad” killings; torture; attacks against journalists; accountability of state security forces; rights of indigenous peoples;
reproductive health rights; displacement caused by conflict; and the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Among the questions asked are: “What are the biggest human rights challenges facing the country?”;
“How do you think the government should deal with killings of journalists, many of them in apparent retaliation for reporting on corruption and poor governance?”; and “How will you address the summary killings by so-called death squads, some having links to local authorities, in urban centers across the Philippines?”
The candidates currently vying for the presidential seat are: incumbent Vice President Jejomar Binay, senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte, senator Grace Poe and former senator Mar Roxas. The presidential contenders have formed election tickets, each with a vice presidential candidate.
Filipinos are scheduled to cast their votes on May 9. The country’s constitution allows a president a single six-year term. Therefore current President Benigno Aquino III, in office since 2010, is barred from running for re-election.
“The upcoming presidential election is crucial if the Philippines is to end pervasive abuses and impunity and become a genuinely rights-respecting country,” Adams added.
“When Filipinos go to the polls on May 9, they will want to know where the candidates stand on these critical concerns.”
HRW will certainly be awaiting the response from controversial and outspoken candidate Rodrigo Duterte, whom it has previously accused of supporting extrajudicial killings, particularly involving the Davao Death Squad, a ‘shadowy’ vigilante group preying on petty and common criminals.
Duterte, who was branded by TIME magazine as “The Punisher”, has also been reported to have admitted to pulling the trigger in at least three shooting incidents involving criminals, in addition to pushing a drug suspect out of a flying helicopter.
According to independent watchdog organization Freedom House, the Philippines is considered “partly free” in its Freedom in the World 2015 report, its lowest scores being under the purview of rule of law and functioning of government.
