EU presses PH gov’t: End executions

The European Union (EU) Parliament in Brussels has directed  its delegation in the Philippines and embassies of 28 member states to monitor rights abuses in line with  state of lawlessness declared by the Duterte administration and called on the government  “ to put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings” of drug suspects.

In a five-page resolution, the European lawmakers raised concern on the extraordinarily high numbers killed during police operations and by vigilante groups.

READ: Yasay: Don’t lecture us on human rights

EU members include highly developed countries, among them Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Sweden, Portugal and Finland.

With no direct blame to the government, EU lawmakers believe that public statements of President Rodrigo Duterte on war on drugs aggravate the mass murders of drug suspects both by police and vigilante groups, now reaching more than 3,000.

READ: THE KILL LIST

“President Duterte repeatedly urged law enforcement agencies and the public to kill suspected drug traffickers who did not surrender, as well as drug users,” said the EU resolution issued on September 15.

It added that “President Duterte publicly stated he would not pursue law enforcement officers and citizens who killed drug dealers who resisted arrest.”

The EU Parliament adopted the resolution addressing the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines based on Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) signed by EU and the Philippines in 2014 to advance engagement on political, trade, security, environment and human rights issues.

The agreement commits the Philippines to uphold rule of law, social democracy and human rights as well as international human rights conventions.

The EU Parliament also said addressing summary killings of drug suspects is vital to the Philippines’ holding of the Asean chairmanship in 2017.

“President Duterte has announced that during the Philippines’ chairmanship, we( the government) will highlight Asean as a model of regionalism and a global player, with the interest of the people at its core,” said the EU Parliament resolution.

The European lawmakers also called on the Philippine Congress “to abstain from reintroducing the death penalty and from lowering the minimum age of criminal liability.”

The lawmakers argued that based on “all empirical evidence, the death penalty does not reduce drug delinquency and would destroy a great achievement of the Philippine justice system.”

The EU lawmakers directed the EU Delegation in the Philippines to provide wide assistance to the Philippine government to implement measures in line with its commitment to international human rights obligations.

The EU earlier condemned the attacks in Davao that killed 15 and injured more than 60.

The EU Parliament has called on the member states and United Nations to assist the Philippines in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

However, it called on the EU Delegation in the Philippines “to monitor carefully the use of the rule of lawlessness” that is not enforced following the Davao blast.