Amnesty International calls on gov’t to stop ‘harassment campaign’

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate and rights groups Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Karapatan criticized Cayetano and Roque.

After local rights groups and a lawmaker slam senior officials of the Duterte administration over their statements linking human rights groups to the country’s “drug lords,” this time, a global human rights organization lambasts the said officials on Monday, April 2 for their “campaign of harassment.”

Amnesty International (AI) called on Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. to retract their statements, which the organization dubbed as “attempts to target human rights defenders and delegitimize their work.”

“The Philippine government must end its campaign of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders,” AI said in a statement.

The organization added that the government should stop its “campaign of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders.”

The allegations stemmed from Cayetano’s statements in a news conference in late March.

“Unwittingly, some of the NGOs are being used by drug lords.

That’s the reality,” the DFA secretary said.

The Palace through Roque supported Cayetano and said that the attacks on Duterte’s campaign to eradicate illegal 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,” Roque, who is also the Presidential adviser on human rights and a human rights advocate said.

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate and rights groups Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Karapatan have earlier criticized Cayetano and Roque.

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

In a press briefing later, drug war head agencies Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Philippine National Police (PNP) said that they will conduct a probe regarding these allegations – which AI also slammed.

(Read: PDEA, PNP to probe drug link allegation vs rights groups)

“If on top of official statements, the PDEA and PNP have embarked on investigations against peaceful human rights defenders, this marks a new low which further undermines the credibility and international reputation of the Philippines,” the organization further said.

As of writing time, the administration and the mentioned officials have not released their responses.