Drugs war used as front to attack community activists
Philippine security forces have long used the counterinsurgency against the Communist Party and New People’s Army as an excuse to attack activist groups. Now Karapatan and other leading rights groups have documented several cases of state and vigilante forces using the drug war as a front to arrest activists on trumped-up charges or violently attack them.
In October several farmer-activists who were resisting land-grabbing in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, were arrested on drug charges, allegedly after police officers planted evidence on them. On December 5, tuk-tuk driver and labour-rights activist Joel Lising was gunned down in Manila. By all accounts he had no connections with the drugs trade and was likely targeted for his activism.
We join rights groups in demanding that all those responsible for extrajudicial killings be prosecuted and that the drug war not be used as a front to attack more community activists.
Cameron Walker (Auckland Philippines Solidarity), Murray Horton, (Philippine Solidarity Network of Aotearoa), Rod Prosser (Wellington Kiwi Pinoy)
(Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN)
