Solon, rights groups hit Malacañang for calling latter ‘unwitting tools of drug lords’

FILE: Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate (Photo: Karlos Ysagani Zarate/Facebook)

Critics hit the Palace and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano for their “irresponsible” speculation and statement about human rights groups being “unwitting tools” of drug lords.

“The attacks against the President’s war on drugs have been vicious and non-stop. We, therefore, do not discount the possibility that some human rights groups have become unwitting tools of drug lords to hinder the strides made by the administration,” Presidential spokesperson and adviser on human rights Harry Roque, Jr. said on Monday, March 26.

This echoed Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary ’s statement about non-government organizations (NGOs) in a news conference last week.

“We’re looking at the whole human rights mechanism that’s supposed to be there to assist the government in fulfilling its human rights obligation,” he said.

“Unwittingly some of the NGOs are being used by drug lords. That’s the reality,” Cayetano added.

A lawmaker from the House of Representatives believes that these remarks endanger the lives of human rights groups and advocates.

“’Yan talaga ang mangyayari d’yan. Parang nilalagyan ng marka ang noo mo na ‘you are a target dahil kasabwat ka’(That is what will really happen. It is as if you marked on your forehead that ‘you are a target because you are a conspirator,’)”Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate said in an interview with DZMM on March 27.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also denounced this through a statement on March 26, saying that these allegations are “more than just gratuitous slurs aimed at undermining the integrity” of human rights activists in the Philippines.

It branded the Duterte administration for having “systematic attacks on the rule of law” that human rights activists are battling.

Calling it a ‘familiar government tactic,’ HRW said,“Publicly linking human rights groups with ‘drug lords’ constitutes a sinister veiled threat in a country in which government-compiled ‘watch lists’ of suspected drug users and drug dealer have been linked to many of the drug war’s thousands of victims.”

In a separate statement, another human rights group Karapatan said, “Malacañang places the blame on human rights organizations for the Duterte administration’s failure to curb the illegal drug problem and accuses them of smearing the country’s reputation.”

“In case Harry Roque and Alan Cayetano haven’t noticed, Duterte did that all by himself, in a path of tyrannical megalomania and unparalleled self-destruction,” Karapatan added.

The group also said that the Palace is attempting to “justify a massive Tokhang-style killing of activists” or evade accountability from rights mechanisms.