Sen. Francis Pangilinan on UN rights council adopting resolution vs PH drug war killings
Govt should heed call of international community: Kiko

Thank you Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, UK Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Uruguay for caring about the thousands of our poor countrymen who have been killed in the Philippine government's deadly war on drugs.

These countries have called for the Philippine government to "take all necessary measures to prevent extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, to carry out impartial investigations and to hold perpetrators accountable, in accordance with international norms and standards, including on due process and the rule of law."

We urge the government to heed the call of the resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council which also calls on it to cooperate with UN offices and mechanisms by facilitating country visits and "refraining from all acts of intimidation or retaliation."

We hope this resolution will convince the Executive department, the AFP and the PNP, leaders of both Houses of Congress to rethink its drug war policy and find real, long-lasting solutions to the drug menace that places a premium on respect for human life. Daily killings while failing to go after drug syndicates is not the solution to eradicating the menace of illegal drugs.

We also urge the Supreme Court to view this resolution as a signal that the international community is deeply concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country, and to act swiftly to correct the situation by ruling on the tokhang cases still pending before it.

Long after the Duterte administration is gone we will all be judged as to where we stood as mass murder of our hapless poor was taking place in our country.