Philippines tars rights groups with ‘drug lords’ smear

Duterte’s subordinates issue veiled threat against activists
Human Rights Watch (US)
Monday, March 26, 2018

Philippine presidential spokesman Harry Roque alleged that “some human rights groups have become unwitting tools of drug lords to hinder the strides made by the administration.” That echoed recent comments by Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano equating efforts of some unnamed human rights organizations to stop President Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous “war on drugs” with “being used by drug lords.” Cayetano said that human rights organizations demanding accountability for the carnage of the anti-drug campaign that has killed more than 12,000 people since Duterte took office in June 2016 were doing so “for politics, for business.”