Press Release
July 2, 2017

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on international uproar over PH killings
Dispatch from Crame No. 107

(7/ 1 /17)

A human rights calamity! That's how the Human Rights Watch assessed Duterte's first year in office.

So true! How else would an impartial, discerning mind call this unprecedented reign of bloodbath in a land of mostly Catholic, God-fearing and compassionate people.

Many international observers take serious note of, and are appalled by, the escalating number of victims of summary executions, mostly poor and defenseless, without even factoring in yet the unrecorded, hence, unaccounted incidents of killing, in this regime's grotesque version of social cleansing.

Quite a number of organizations worldwide has denounced the state of affairs in our country and called for accountability. The United Nations (UN) top human rights official has made an urgent plea for a UN-led inquiry. Reputable foreign-based media and human rights organizations, such New York Times, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, rolled out their respective comprehensive reportage, with case studies, on the human carnage, surpassing the efforts of their local counterparts.

On the international plane, there is manifest uproar about the killings and inexorable solidarity with the victims.

In contrast, our people and authorities are in a state of denial, almost in catatonic state, refusing to repudiate this culture of death.

In short, the world cares. But many Filipinos don't. Tragic!

But then again, I cannot and will never give up on our people.

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