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| Protesters set off from Chater Road in Central |
Some 400 Filipino and international human rights campaigners have urged
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to stop killing poor and innocent people
in his bloody war against drugs.
Leaders of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the
Philippines sent their message to Duterte in a communiqué issued at the end of
a three-day conference hosted by the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of
Human Rights in the Philippines (HKCAHRP).
The statement was handed over to
a representative of the Philippine Consulate on Jun 30, following a protest march from Chater
Road in Central to United Centre in Admiralty where the diplomatic post has its
offices.
Peter Murphy, ICHRP chairman, said some 160 delegates from 45 countries
have expressed solidarity with the Filipino people by signing the declaration
calling on the Duterte government to stop the killings.
The protesters, which included activists from Argentina, Australia,
Canada, The Netherlands, United States and leaders of Anakbayan USA and
Gabriela USA, chanted “Stop the killings in the Philippines” and “Long live
international solidarity,” as they marched to the Consulate.
A few delegates from the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, which
held its Sixth Assembly in Sai Kung recently, also joined the rally to show
support.
A copy of the communiqué was handed by Murphy to PCG officer Danny Baldon,
and asked that it be notarized as proof it was officially received by the
government. Baldon told them to leave it with him and pick up a notarized copy
in the afternoon.
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| ICHRP chair Peter Murphy reads communique outside the Consulate building |
In speeches on Chater Road and outside the Consulate, the protest leaders
alleged that Duterte’s anti-drug campaign has led to the murders of activists,
priests, journalists, students, farmers, workers and innocent children.
“We decided, as an Asia priority, to enable and support the United
Nations and the International Labor Organization and other international
fact-finding missions to enter the Philippines and investigate and ask the
government to stop the killings", said Murphy.
Ma Jai, deputy secretary general of the ICHRP, called for more
international solidarity with the Filipino people as, he said, Duterte’s
government will get worse.
“Hong Kong people respect the Filipino people for their resistance
against Duterte, who uses his power against the vulnerable, the weak and the
poor,” he said, “but not the drug lords and others who are destroying the
country.”
Adrian Bonifacio, chairman of Anakbayan USA, said the repressive regime
in the Philippines is forcing some 6,000 Filipinos to migrate daily, mostly to
places where they are trafficked, abused, exploited, detained and deported.
He also slammed the US government for allegedly recruiting
immigrant youth to the military to fight its imperialist war and “kill people
who look like us, our own kababayans.”
Among the other speakers was Donna de Lima of Gabriela
USA, who pledged to fight for migrant women workers and for national democracy.
Migrante International chairwoman Joanna Concepcion said the Philippine
Overseas Employment Administration had collected US$5 million in pre-departure
processing fees and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration US$20 billion
as of 2017. But she claimed the funds were being used by Duterte
to pay off his massive debt to China while neglecting the plight of distressed
OFWs, like the 81 migrants who remain in death row.
She said that Migrante has just launched a global
petition to be signed by migrants and submitted to the United Nations Human
Rights Council to investigate the worsening human rights violations by the
Duterte administration.
Eman Villanueva, chairman of Bayan Hong Kong and Macau, said migrant
workers have long been suffering from forced separation from families back home
and from maltreatment, unfair wages., discrimination and modern-day slavery.
“But we are unable to go home because in the Philippines, there is no
justice for the poor and the Filipino people. Under the Duterte regime, the
sufferings of the Filipino have only exacerbated,” Villanueva said.
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