‘Rody like Singapore founder’

A PALACE official on Saturday compared President Rodrigo Duterte to the late Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew amid criticism of his supposedly authoritarian style of leadership.

“Like Lee Kuan Yew, he was also very strict. He is very strict but you can also see the progress of the nation,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella told state radio dzRB. “Our actions should not be entirely ideological, but we need to also understand the needs of our country.” 

Abella made the comparison following criticism from the New York-based Human Rights Watch which placed Duterte among populist leaders who have intensified the “flouting of human rights.”

Abella, however, maintained that Duterte is a ‘very decisive’ leader and a ‘man of action.’

“If they place labels [on the President]—they limit you. They do not see what you’re actually doing, they just gave a label. But the President is very authoritative and he—we can see the job done,” he said. 

He likewise accused the human rights group and other ‘liberal media’ of being hostile towards  Duterte. 

“Let us remember that he is governing by the rule of law. That’s why they call him—especially the liberal media and the liberal political order—is because they’re antagonistic to more authoritative forms or styles of governance,” Abella claimed. 

“From the liberal institutions, we tend to emphasize individual rights, which is valued of course. However, we also need to understand that it has to be placed in the context of common good,” he added.

But Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2017 that Duterte has initiated a “war on drugs” in which police and “unidentified gunmen” have killed several thousand people.

In the 687-page World Report, its 27th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 90 countries and Executive Director Kenneth Roth said a new generation of authoritarian populists seeks to overturn the concept of human rights protection, treating rights as an impediment to the majority will.

“In the name of wiping out ‘drug crime,’ President Duterte has steamrolled human rights protections and elevated unlawful killings of criminal suspects to a cornerstone of government policy,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“Friends of the Philippines need to make clear that it can’t be business as usual until the killings stop and there are meaningful moves toward accountability,” Kine said. 

The Philippines has seen an unprecedented level of apparent summary killings by the police since Duterte took office.