Human Rights Online Philippines

We respectfully recommend to Vice President Leni Robredo that she make it among her top priorities as ICAD co-chair to stop and investigate what is clearly a policy of disinformation, misinformation and information manipulation to justify the drug war, specifically the extrajudicial killings.

The people have a right to information, and we are sure the Vice President agrees with this. We thus recommend to her that President that she seek disclosures to many pressing questions on the drug war:

1. Who are the country’s biggest druglords, and the status of investigations or prosecutions against them, if any? Who are the officials protecting or providing them with lenient, special treatment?
2. What information does the ICAD member-agencies have regarding the entry of illegal drugs from abroad, and what steps they have taken to stop them?
3. What is the status of investigations or prosecutions against former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon in connection with the disappearance of billions worth of shabu, against “ninja cops” led by former Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde, and other top officials, and those who gifted three convicted Chinese drug lords with early release?
4. What is the status of investigations or prosecutions into the “narco lists” publicized by the president?
5. What is the status of investigations or prosecutions into every case of extrajudicial killing or deaths in the hands of the police?
6. What is the status of investigations or prosecutions into policemen identified as perpetrators of extrajudicial killings?
7. Who are the other convicted top drug lords freed under BuCor Directors Bato Dela Rosa and Faeldon?
8. Where are the lists and actual inventories of shabu and illegal drugs seized by police in their operations?
9. Which private drug testing companies are involved in the many drug testing activities of government, the amount of taxpayer funds provided to them, and the status of all private/personal medical information in the possession?

The answers to these and many other questions are important in assessing the conduct of the so-called drug war. Agencies and officials of government are duty-bound to provide the answers to taxpayers and all citizens.

We also ask the Vice President to press the ICAD member-agencies to be open to public feedback and criticism, and not to overreach their mandate, as in PDEA’s request to censor a song it views as “supportive” of drug use.

Finally, we ask the Vice President to invite in her capacity as ICAD co-chair all the United Nations special rapporteurs so they could do their work, provide government and the public an independent view, and make their recommendations. ###

Steering Committee
Let’s Organize for Democracy and Integrity (LODI)
Nov. 8, 2019

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