Group seeks UK help vs EJKs

A Manila-based human rights group on Saturday urged members of the British parliament to act on the rising number of what the group said were extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the Philippines committed in the name of President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Speaking before members of the British parliament, Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan, said the United Kingdom must exert more pressure on the Philippine government to end the wave of killings related to the war on drugs.

“The UK government must do more to pressure the Duterte government to end the huge wave of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines unleashed in its so-called war on drugs,” Palabay said.

UK meeting

Palabay made the call before British legislators at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights  and the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines  on Nov. 5.

The meeting heard the concerns of human rights activists and academics in the United Kingdom, including the alleged sale of British surveillance technology and arms to the Duterte administration.

Karapatan said these deals violated rules on the export of technology to repressive regimes.

Deadly results

In her speech, Palabay said that in the Philippines, an estimated 14,000 to 20,000 deaths had resulted from the government’s war on drugs in the last two years.

Human rights defenders had also received death threats and have become under constant police surveillance, she said.