THE KILLING STATE DUTERTE’S LEGACY OF VIOLENCE | july 2021 | july A HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATIONER HUMAN RIGHTS A IN THIS REPORT 1. INTRODUCTION | 1 2. STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE | 3 3. DISTORTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND SHRINKING OF CIVIC SPACES | 7 4. DEROGATION OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL RIGHTS | 13 5. CONFRONTING DUTERTE’S LEGACY OF VIOLENCE | 17 Permission to Reproduce The information in this publication may be reproduced for non- commercial purposes, in part or in whole, and by any means, without charge or further permission from the institution, provided that due diligence is exercised in ensuring the accuracy of the information reproduced; that the institution is identified as the source of the information; and that the reproduction is not presented as the official version of the information reproduced, nor as having been made in affiliation with or with For Inquiries: the endorsement of the Philippine
[email protected] Human Rights Information Center. INTRO 1DUCTION President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was Change did come, after all, albeit elected in 2016 under a campaign in terms of high kill counts and platform that promised a no-nonsense immense suffering. Change, it approach to crushing crime, corrup- turns out, means living in a country tion and the illegal drugs problem. His besieged by extreme violence and campaign team packaged him as both widespread human rights violations tough and compassionate, with “Tapang at a rate and intensity not seen at Malasakit” and the battlecry “Change since Martial Law’s darkest days. is coming.” This human rights crisis, made This messaging resonated with a possible by the violent so-called war populace who felt that the promise of on drugs, the widespread attacks better lives post-EDSA 1986 had never against human rights defenders, materialized and believed that the activists, and the media, and the ‘progress’ and orderliness in Davao City willful disregard for social and should be replicated throughout the economic justice, has caused untold country.