Our people have fought long for our rights and freedoms. We are not about to back down now," Vice President Leni Robredo said in a message to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs. OVP/Released, file
MANILA, Philippines — Citing the “palit ulo” scheme that literally means exchange of head, Vice President Leni Robredo hit anew the human rights abuses in the administration’s war on drugs, in a video message for the 60th annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Austria.
The video, which runs almost six minutes, was published by TIME.com yesterday.
According to Time, the video was recorded in February and would be aired at a side session of the Vienna conference tomorrow.
In her message, Robredo mentioned the more than 7,000 people killed since the government launched its war against illegal drugs on July 1.
“Our people have fought long for our rights and freedoms,” she said. “We are not about to back down now.”
Robredo said people requesting search warrants were beaten and police detained relatives in lieu of absconded drug suspects.
“They told us of the palit ulo scheme (exchange heads), where the wife or husband or relative of a person in a so-called drug list will be taken if the person could not be found,” she said.
Robredo also slammed the inconsistent figures on drug addiction reported by President Duterte.
She also thanked the international community such as the UN for discussing the issue of extrajudicial killings as well as human rights advocates around the world for “watching over our country as this gives us comfort, courage and hope.”
The Vice President said drug abuse “must be regarded as it truly is: a complex public health issue linked intimately with poverty and social inequality.”
“You cannot kill the addicts and declare the problem solved. Help them transition into productive members of the society,” she said.
“We demand greater transparency in the government’s war on drugs because this is a major publicly-funded campaign,” she underscored.
Last week, the Philippine National Police re-launched the war on drugs, renamed “Project Double Barrel Reloaded.”
Catholic clergy and other religious workers have been asked to join the police anti-drug operations, to be led by a new unit still being put together – the Drug Enforcement Group.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), for its part, has tied up with the Commission on Human Rights to educate the public on the principles of basic human rights.
CBCP Public Affairs Committee executive secretary Fr. Jerome Secillano said they created a program to equip the public, “especially those affected by the extrajudicial killings and human rights violations.”
Covered by the program are matters such as EJKs, urban poor, illegal settlements, poverty, health and unemployment.
He clarified the program was not intended to counter the issues being raised against the Duterte administration as this was conceptualized even before he became president on June 30.
Secillano added that in the program, they would be using a holistic approach and would not be limited to academic discussions.
Aside from providing human rights information, the modules will also include available interventions such as legal, psychosocial and spiritual interventions.
The program will be pilot tested at the Diocese of Caloocan. – With Evelyn Macairan
Source : http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/03/15/1681294/leni-raises-philippines-rights-abuses-un