The Philippines is receiving worldwide attention for the wrong reason. A week after a US foreign aid agency deferred a grant to Manila on concerns about “rule of law and civil liberties,” Grammy award-winning singer James Taylor canceled his February 2017 concert in the Philippines in protest of the alleged extrajudicial killings in the brutal drug war waged by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Taylor lauded the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, describing dependence on them as a scourge and a worldwide problem. But the singer was deeply alarmed at the reported executions of suspected offenders without trial or judicial process and called them “unacceptable to anyone who loves the rule of law.”
Millennium Challenge Corp., an innovative and independent US foreign aid agency helping lead the fight against global poverty, was equally disturbed about the thousands killed under questionable circumstances. The agency gave the Philippines a negative scorecard amid the savage killings to send a clear message on the importance of democracy to good governance.
MCC may not be the last donor to give the Philippines a negative scorecard, while Taylor’s protest may reverberate through the world entertainment industry.
President Duterte’s government, unfortunately, is not hearing the protests of MCC and Taylor. Instead of launching serious investigations into the alleged extrajudicial killings, the government is dismissing them as mere opinions and unfounded accusations.
The state should initiate a probe into the obvious summary executions of petty drug users and dealers, many of them killed under the guise of a shootout with the police. Many of those killed in the government’s drug war were small fry who were silenced by death squads or assassins to prevent them from ratting on.
United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein already demanded similar investigations into the “shocking number of killings that have occurred across the country since Duterte became president.”
The Philippines will carry a stigma and keep its notoriety in the civilized world, unless it redresses the injustice and uphold the rule of law.