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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY September 1 - 15, 2016
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UN slams Du30’s war
THE United Nations
High Commissioner on Human
Rights on Wednesday scored
President Rodrigo Duterte
for failing to understand
international human rights
law but Malacañang argued
the President knew precisely
the legalities and limits of the
powers vested in his office.
“The President of the
Philippines’ statements of
scorn for international human
rights law display a striking
lack of understanding of our
human rights institutions
and the principles which
keep societies safe,” Zeid
Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High
Commissioner for Human
Rights said.
“Fair and impartial
rule of law is the foundation
of public confidence and
security. Empowering police
forces to shoot to kill any
individual whom they claim to
suspect of drug crimes, with or
without evidence, undermines
justice,” he added.
Since taking office
last June, the President has
been accused of condoning
state sanctioned extrajudicial
killings against drug suspects,
drawing criticism from many
international organizations,
including the UN.
The experts said that
Duterte’s decision to ask law
enforcers and the public to
kill suspected drug traffickers
“amount
to
incitement
to
violence
and killing, a
crime
under
international
law.”
T h e
United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
expressed
concern
over
the rise in the number of
killings of suspected drug
personalities, stating this was
“not in line with the current
provisions of international
drug conventions.”
The President has
consistently belittled these
criticisms, chiding the United
Nations for “meddling” in the
Philippines’ internal affairs.
Duterte had also
publicly cursed United Nations
Secretary-General Ban KiMoon for allegedly doing
nothing for the Philippines
except to criticize his war on
drugs.
Chief
Presidential
Legal
Counsel
Salvador
Panelo had earlier dared
the UN “to come over and
see for themselves the real
situation,” but Presidential
Spokesperson Ernesto Abella
said this invitation was “not
official.”
Duterte on Wednesday
said anyone who wants
to criticize him or lecture
him about human rights in
connection with his anti-drug
war should “do it the right
way.”
“If you want to criticize
me, you bring the matter to
the United Nations. Then they
will call my attention, and I
will answer, maybe in writing
or send somebody there,” he
said.
Duterte recently called
UN Secretary-General Ban KiMoon “a fool.”
The Palace denied the
UN High Commissioner on
Human Rights’ view that the
President did not understand
international human rights
law.
“President Duterte is
a respecter of human rights,
but he has also been firm
in saying that human rights
cannot be used as an excuse
to let the spread of drugs in
the country run rampant,”
Presidential
spokesman
Ernesto Abella said.
“As a lawyer and
former
prosecutor,
the
President knows the limits of
the power and authority of the
presidency. In his inauguration
he said, ‘I know what is legal
and what is not. My adherence
to due process and the rule of
law is uncompromising,”’ he
added. (J.P. Bencito, MS)
CBCP opposes revival
of death penalty
The Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP) has appealed to court
judges to follow the teaching of
the Church and not to impose
death penalty.
“We appeal to our Catholic judges to heed the teaching
of the Church and to appreciate every possible attenuating or mitigating circumstance
so as not to impose the death
penalty,” said CBCP President
Archbishop Socrates Villegas in
a statement entitled CBCP Ethical Guidelines on Proposals to
Restore the Death Penalty.
Likewise, the LingayenDagupan prelate urged them not
to support the reimposition of
capital punishment.
“We call on our Catholic
jurists to study the issue and to
oppose, through proper judicial
proceedings, the re-introduction
of capital punishment,” he said.
Villegas added, “It is
time then to rid ourselves of the
obsolescent notion that a person
who commits a heinous wrong
“forfeits his right to life”. No one
can forfeit the right to life, because life is at the free disposal
of none, not even of the State!”
The CBCP head also
asked legislators not to vote for
restoration of the the death penalty.
“We ask Catholic lawmakers to withhold support from
any attempt to restore the death
penalty,” he said.
Villegas pointed out that
the country has a legal obligation
not to restore the capital punishment.
“This is an obligation in
law that it took upon itself when
our government ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the
Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. Significantly, Article I of
the Protocol cannot be clearer
about our legal obligations:1.
No one within the jurisdiction of
a State Party to the present Protocol shall b e executed. 2. Each
State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the
death penalty within its jurisdic-
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tion,” he said.
The Catholic bishop
added, “And there is nothing in
the Protocol that would allow the
Philippines to denounce the international agreement. In fact, it
would not be in our best interests
to do so, in light of the fact that
in respect to other aspects of our
national life, we take refuge and
seek legal relief under the norms
of international law and international agreements.”
He also cited the existence of a law that was passed
10 years ago that repealed the
imposition of death penalty.
“Our position against
the death penalty therefore rests
not only on considerations of
human dignity but has legal
foundation. In the country’s
legislature R.A. 9346, the act
repealing the death penalty and
granting universal commutation
to life imprisonment and reclusion-perpetua (June 24, 2006),”
the Lingayen-Dagupan prelate
added. (PNA, MB)