Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday called on leading presidential candidate and former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to address alleged violations of human rights in the Philippines, starting with ending the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
HRW issued the statement with Marcos leading the presidential race with 30,731,560 votes as of 10:32 a.m. Tuesday based on partial and unofficial quick count via the Comelec transparency media server. Willie Casas
“Once in office, presumptive President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should take immediate and decisive action to improve the human rights situation in the Philippines. He should declare an end to the ‘war on drugs’ that has resulted in the extrajudicial killing of thousands of Filipinos, and order the impartial investigation and appropriate prosecution of officials responsible for these unlawful killings,” Phil Roberton, deputy Asia director for HRW, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Likewise, HRW said “Marcos should publicly order the military, police and other security forces to cease targeting activists, human rights defenders and journalists for killing and other rights violations.”
“He should end the practice of ‘red-tagging’ [or] accusing activists and government critics of being Communist fighters or supporters,” Roberton pointed out.
In addition, HRW called on Marcos to “fully cooperate with the International Criminal Court investigation into allegations of ‘crimes against humanity’ implicating outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte and others” in the war on drugs.