HUMAN Rights Watch is deeply concerned by the series of highly questionable arrests of six activists and a journalist on Thursday. The accused claim that police planted evidence to justify the charges against them. It is critical that these allegations must be thoroughly and impartially evaluated by independent investigators.
There is plenty of room for suspicion about police actions. Human Rights Watch has previously documented illegal planting of evidence by police in cases of ordinary Filipinos gunned down by police in the government’s ‘drug war.’ There is also a damning history of such underhanded police actions against political activists that correctly arouse suspicions.
It is outrageous and unacceptable that the Philippines government is cracking down on political activists. It should be lost on no one that the police conducted these raids and arrests on international Human Rights Day. This really highlights the Duterte government’s contemptuous attitude toward human rights and its confrontational stance against dissenters and political activists. (HRW)
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