Philippines: New report exposes crackdown on political opponents of Duterte government

The full report is available here.

JAKARTA – The Philippine government under President Rodrigo Duterte has launched an unprecedented crackdown on political opponents in Congress, using trumped-up criminal charges, threats and intimidation as well as a range of other tactics to subvert democracy, a new report by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) reveals today.

“In the crosshairs of the Presidency”: Attacks on opposition lawmakers in the Philippines documents how at least eight Senators and Representatives have faced politically motivated criminal charges since President Duterte took office in 2016. It is often those lawmakers opposing key administration policies – including the murderous “war on drugs” – who have been targeted.

“The efforts by the Philippine government to harass, sideline and even imprison lawmakers are extremely troubling. These attempts to silence political opponents mark just one example of how democratic institutions are being eroded under President Duterte,” said Charles Santiago, Chair of APHR and a Member of Parliament in Malaysia.

“The Philippines is in the midst of a serious human rights crisis and needs a strong and functioning opposition more than ever, but this is simply not possible in the current climate. With the new Congress taking their seats in July, it is high time for the government to change course and ensure that all lawmakers can perform their duties without fear of reprisals.”

Criminal charges

Since President Duterte took office in 2016, his administration has unleashed a “war on drugs” in which police or their proxies have extrajudicially killed thousands of suspected “drug criminals”. Human rights groups have said the campaign could amount to crimes against humanity.

Several lawmakers who have opposed the campaign against illegal drugs and other key government policies, including an effort to bring back the death penalty, have faced retribution through politicized criminal charges.

The most high-profile example is Senator Leila de Lima, who has been detained since February 2017 on fabricated “conspiracy to drug trafficking” charges. The Senator drew the government’s ire after using her position to launch a Senate inquiry into the “war on drugs”.

Among the seven other lawmakers who are facing or have faced trumped-up charges are the  former Representatives Ariel Casilao and Anotnio Tinio. They were charged with “child abuse” in October 2018 after leading a peaceful demonstration against Martial Law on the island of Mindanao, apparently because it was attended by indigenous youth.

Another example is Senator Risa Hontiveros, a vocal critic of the “war on drugs”. After her office provided a safe shelter to underage witnesses to the police murder of a 17-year-old boy in September 2017, she was slapped with “kidnapping charges”. She faced further “wiretapping” charges after revealing text messages where a Duterte ally had ordered cases against her to be “expedited”. More recently, the former Senator Antonio Trillanes in 2018 faced a slew of trumped-up criminal cases due to his vocal opposition to the government.

“The use of politically motivated criminal cases against lawmakers in the Philippines must end. We urge the authorities to immediately drop all charges against those who have done nothing but engage in peaceful political activities – this must also include immediately and unconditionally releasing Senator Leila de Lima from detention”, said Eva Sundari, an MP in Indonesia and APHR Board Member.

Following the recent mid-term elections in May, Duterte allies have strengthened their numbers in the bicameral Congress (divided into the House of Representatives and the Senate), with new sessions set to begin on 22 July.

Threats and harassment

The government has directed harsh and aggressive rhetoric towards opposition lawmakers, including by threatening those opposing its policies with jail time or even violence.

Much of the rhetoric has been highly misogynistic in nature. President Duterte labelled Senator de Lima an “immoral woman” and attempted to show a fake sex tape allegedly involving the Senator in Congress before her arrest. Other female lawmakers have been berated as “stupid” and “weak”, with the President questioning their ability to hold office.

In the online sphere, the government has done nothing to combat a barrage of misinformation (or “fake news”) and abuse directed towards Duterte critics, with Senators de Lima and Hontiveros and Vice President Leni Robredo among those most often targeted. On occasion, government officials have even fuelled such abuse by sharing fake content themselves.

Lawmakers told APHR how the harassment, combined with the threat of trumped-up criminal charges, has not only been a drain on time and resources, but has also had a chilling effect on debate in Congress.

Subverting democracy

The report further documents how the administration has manipulated democratic practices to undermine the opposition in Congress. Some lawmakers who opposed a move to reintroduce the death penalty in 2017 saw budgets for their home districts slashed to zero, while others were stripped of chairpersonships or membership of influential comittees.

In the House of Representatives, the Duterte administration has also manipulated rules to ensure that the official Minority (or opposition) bloc – which should be an important check and balance on the executive – is essentially only composed of pro-government lawmakers.

APHR believes that lawmakers can play a crucial role in promoting and upholding human rights, but this is only possible if they are allowed to exercise their mandates without undue interference or fear of reprisals.

The attacks on opposition parliamentarians in the Philippines mirror a worrying regional trend in Southeast Asia, where authoritarian governments increasingly rely on draconian legislation and cowed state institution to sideline and harass political opponents. In Cambodia, the government in 2017 orchestrated the disbandment of the main opposition party through the Supreme Court, while in Thailand authorities have recently pursued trumped-up criminal cases against opponents of the military-allied government.

“These are troubling times for democracy in Southeast Asia. Governments in the region must stop lashing out at opponents, and instead build inclusive political cultures where everyone’s views are respected. We need open and strong democracies to fulfil the promise of an ASEAN where human rights are upheld and protected for all people,” said Mu Sochua, Cambodian MP and a Board Member of APHR.