MANILA, Philippines — Human rights organizations will mark June 12, Independence Day, with what they intend to be a massive protest action to denounce the continuing killings and other human rights violations under the Duterte government’s anti-drug and counterinsurgency campaigns.
The rally, to be held at the Rajah Sulayman Park in Malate, is organized by, among others, the Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns, Rise Up for Rights and for Life, Hustisya! (Victims United for Justice), Karapatan and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.
The organizers said the mass action “aims to bring together the victims and opponents of the government’s failed ‘drug war’ as well as the AFP’s brutal counterinsurgency campaign” and raise other issues such as the death penalty, the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility and “similar repressive measures.”
Since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power last year, thousands — most tallies put the number of deaths so far at way above 9,000 and counting — have died either in police operations or vigilante-style executions street killings.
Human rights groups also accuse state security forces of murdering activists, mostly in the countryside, as they wage the campaign against the communist New People’s Army.
Organizers of the June 12 rally said they hope “to raise the people’s just indignation over the continuing human rights violations and climate of impunity under the current dispensation” and stressed that the gathering “is not part of any destabilization effort.”
