By Clarist Zablan
(March 14, 2024) – An international human rights organization on Thursday refuted President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s remarks made in Germany, claiming that the government’s anti-drug policy has “changed significantly” during his administration.
Bryony Lau of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Marcos administration has not stopped drug war killings from happening during his term, nor has it brought all of the perpetrators of killings under his predecessor’s drug war to justice.
“The ‘drug war’ remains a state policy,” Lau said in a statement.
“Marcos has not rescinded Duterte’s issuances for the ‘drug war.’ He has likewise never categorically and publicly ordered law enforcers to stop the violence. He cannot claim progress because the impunity persists.”
During his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, Marcos touted the changes in his government’s campaign against illegal drugs, stressing that he is against using violence to handle the illegal drug problem.
“It really requires so much more, much deeper understanding of the problem, and the much deeper solution. So, yes, I think that we are also progressing when it comes to that,” Marcos had said about the country’s anti-drug policy.
His predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, implemented a bloody and brutal anti-drug campaign that has drawn international criticisms and prompted an International Criminal Court (ICC) inquiry due to killings linked to the campaign.
Based on official police data, at least 6,000 suspected drug offenders were killed in anti-drug operations during his term, but human rights organizations estimate the numbers at as high as 30,000.
The killings have continued under the Marcos Jr. administration, with 342 drug-related killings reported during the first year of his term, according to the Dahas project of the University of the Philippines’ Third World Studies Center (UP TWSC).
Convictions stemming from the drug war killings during the Duterte administration have been rare, with only two cases resulting in the conviction of police officers, Lau said.
“President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s claim, made while on an official visit to Germany, that the violence in the “drug war” has lessened during his term disregards the fact that the killings have continued under his watch and, equally important, his administration is failing to provide accountability for past and recent crimes,” she said.
Last year, the ICC pre-trial chamber was authorized to resume investigations into the drug war killings under Duterte after the appeals chamber rejected the Philippine government’s bid to block the inquiry on grounds of jurisdiction.
Marcos, who was a close ally of Duterte, has insisted that the Hague-based tribunal has no authority to investigate the drug war killings in the country.
(MM)
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