Name: Josh A.

Cabrera

Crse & Sec: AB in Political Science PSC31

Subject: Political Economy (PSCE314)

Professor: Jumel Gamilan Estrañero

University: De La Salle University – Dasmariñas

Sociopolitical effects of the Duterte administrations human rights violations.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Philippines 16th President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, he was a former mayor of Davao city.
During his new term at the office, President Roa Rodrigo Duterte declared war on Drugs
Campaign in the Philippines starting June 30, 2016, to June 30, 2022. This war on drugs
campaign led to the deaths of 12,000 Filipinos and mostly in urban poor. President Rodrigo
Duterte declared war on drugs to make the human activist who are not obeying justice. This
war on drugs campaign led to unlawful killings and Filipino’s human rights violated. Political
activists, human rights advocates, and politicians experienced arbitrary arrests, detentions,
and harassment, not only that but they also targeted Indigenous people. While war drug is
happening, Covid-19 started to spread in the Philippines. Back when he was still running for
presidency, he wanted to clear out and have an improvement in our country by addressing
crime and corruption.
II. BODY

One of the human rights violated during war on drug campaign is “Extrajudicial Killing”
President Duterte persisted in encouraging violence against those who are thought to be drug
users or dealers. The department of justice published only a portion of the data from its
analysis of the hundreds of cases involving police fatalities during anti-drug operations,
which totaled 52. Despite being severely insufficient and falling short of international
standards, the review's scant findings refuted police claims that the use of fatal force had been
justified and corroborated abuses that local and international human rights organizations had
already reported. In September an inquiry into crimes, including the crime against humanity
of murder perpetrated in the context of the "war on drugs" nationwide between 2016 and
2019, as well as killings in the Davao region between 2011 and 2016, has been approved by
the ICC's pre-trial chamber.

Another violating of human rights is “Red Tagging” this led to the murders and abuse of
political activists, human rights campaigners, and others. On March 7, Security troops raided
"red-tagged" groups simultaneously, killing nine individuals and arresting six more. Those
imprisoned and executed included community leaders from the urban poor and environmental
organizations. The groups involved denied claims made by the security forces that weapons
and explosives were found during the raids and that those killed were resisting arrest. In a
speech delivered two days prior to the raids, President Duterte claimed to have given the
police and military orders to "kill" communist rebels. The Department of Justice
recommended in December that 17 law enforcement officers be charged with murder for the
killing of labor leader Emmanuel Asuncion during the raids. The Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA),
which gave the government broad detention authority, continued to face opposition. Acting
on petitions contesting the constitutionality of the ATA, the Supreme Court invalidated two
provisions of the law in December, including language in Section 4 that the Court found to be
"overbroad and violative of the freedom of expression" and that defined acts of terrorism in a
broad and ambiguous manner.

Indigenous peoples and campaigners for their rights continued to be attacked. Windel
Bolinget, a well-known champion for Indigenous rights, received a directive from the
Cordillera police chief in January to "shoot-to-kill" him if he defied an arrest warrant. Windel
Bolinget was cleared of a murder charge in July due to political motivations. Security
personnel invaded a school in Cebu City in February that was housing Indigenous children
who had been displaced by armed strife. Seven persons were detained without warrants and
accused with kidnapping and human trafficking, including pupils, teachers, and a local elder.
They were jailed for three months until the charges were dismissed.
The Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 was amended by a measure that was approved by the
House of Representatives in March. The draft contains provisions that could encourage
arbitrary arrests and would violate the right to fair trial, including the presumption of
innocence of those accused of using or selling drugs. The bill remained before the Senate at
year end.

Covid-19 cases and deaths sharply increased in April, prompting allegations that the
government handled the epidemic improperly. The already shoddy healthcare system lacked
enough hospital beds and medical personnel to treat Covid-19 patients. The Covid-19
vaccination campaign was launched by the government in March, however there were issues
with implementation speed, regional dispersion, and access to vaccines.
Journalist Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize
in October in honor of their respective campaigns for press freedom in the Philippines. She
was found not guilty on two cyber libel charges in June and August, but she still faces more
charges for which she may spend up to 60 years in prison.

A report released in August detailed violations of workers' rights in the Dinagat Island nickel
mining industry, including hiring workers without written contracts, paying wages late, and
failing to provide required benefits.
 On 2 March, the House of Representatives passed House Bill 7814 to amend the
Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which would reintroduce the death penalty for
drugs-related offences. The bill remained pending before the Senate at year’s end. Several
other bills to reintroduce the death penalty also remained pending before the House of
Representatives and the Senate.

Eight LGBTI people were hurt on September 18 when an IED detonated during a volleyball
match in the province of Maguindanao. The event was deemed a hate crime by the
Bangsamoro parliament, which urged the authorities to look into it.

III. ANALYSIS
During President Rodrigo Duterte’s Administration he violated a lot of human right acts
under the war on drug campaign. In his presidency, Political activists, human rights
advocates, and politicians experienced arbitrary arrests, detentions, harassment, and
indigenous people are violated all in his administration. With all the violation he committed,
there are at least 12,000 people died and some of them are part of the poor family and some
are innocent people who did nothing bad. According to a study by Human Rights Watch,
 police are fabricating evidence to support the murders, the deaths have received plaudits from
Duterte and some of his key ministers as evidence of the "success" of the anti-drug campaign.

IV. RECOMMENDATION
Together with the relatives of the victims and the nation's civil society groups, we will put
forth unrelenting effort to see that those who have broken the law, both domestically and
internationally, while blatantly enjoying impunity are brought to justice. Since it is too late to
do anything from what happened before, in this new administration, Bong Bong Marcos’
Administration should respect our human rights. He should stop killings of innocent people.
We need and improve our human rights in our country by making an extra effort to the
Human Right Council.

V. CONCLUSION
To conclude, a lot of innocent lives were lost in Duterte’s Administration under war on drugs
Campaign. His administration didn’t make us discipline and in order, it made us scared to
protect our own health and nations. From clearing out corruption and having improvements,
he turned it into lots of unlawful killings and violating Filipino’s right. The only thing we can
do right now is protect our human rights and we hope that Bong Bong Marcos’
Administration will stop the unlawful killings and violating human rights and make the right
choices for our country to be better.

VI. REFERENCES

Amnesty International (2021). Amnesty International Philippines 2021. Retrieved From:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-east-asia-and-the-pacific/
philippines/report-philippines/

Human Rights Watch (2023). Human Rights Watch Philippines ‘War on Drugs’. Retrieved From:
https://www.hrw.org/tag/philippines-war-drugs
Human Rights Watch (2023). Human Rights Watch Philippines: Duterte Threatens Human Rights
Community. Retrieved From: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/18/philippines-duterte-threatens-
human-rights-community

Amnesty International (2021). Widespread killings, rampant impunity show real state of nation.
Retrieved From: https://www.amnesty.org.ph/2021/07/widespread-killings-rampant-impunity-show-
real-state-of-nation/

Timberman, D, G. (2019). Philippine Politics Under Duterte: A Midterm Assessment. Retrieved

From: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/01/10/philippine-politics-under-duterte-midterm-
assessment-pub-78091

Geneva. (2022). Philippines: Strong UN Human Rights Council Action Needed. Retrieved From:
https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/philippines-strong-un-human-rights-council-action-needed

Message for Sir Jumel,

Hi sir Jumel, thank you for sharing your passion in teaching, thank you for always trying to make
time for us to gain more knowledge in your subject and what’s happening in our world. Thank you
for committing on teaching us while you have other work to prioritize. It’s sad you won’t be able to
be our professor next sem. Thank you so much for everything sir, God Bless always and see you soon
around the campus.