WON to support the candidacy of presidency of rodrigo duterte

OPPOSITION PREMISE

DUTERTE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

“No man is above the law, and no man is below it.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Duterte has been mayor of Davao City, located on the main southern island of Mindanao,
almost continuously since 1988. He said in a speech on May 15, 2015, that his approach
to crime fighting depended on the killing of suspected criminals. “We’re the ninth safest
city. How do you think I did it? How did I reach that title among the world’s safest cities?
Kill them all [criminals].”

The official Commission on Human Rights has also investigated these allegations and in
2012 issued a resolution saying that it found probable cause to recommend that the Office
of the Ombudsman file murder charges against Duterte. But the Ombudsman limited its
investigation to the police officers implicated in the killings – not Duterte himself –
finding 21 of them guilty of “simple neglect of duty,” and fining them the equivalent of a
month’s salary. The country’s Court of Appeals later overturned the verdict, saying the
Ombudsman merely used statistics against the police officers. To date, not one person has
been convicted for involvement in any of the killings.

“The Philippine government should take a zero-tolerance approach to any public official
who publicly endorses extrajudicial killings as an acceptable means of crime control,”
said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Also on Monday, De Lima called on Filipinos to stop "idolizing" Duterte.

"'Yung iba sa atin, natutuwa pa! Lalong ina-idolize si Mayor Duterte. But, is that right?
Hindi po tama 'yun! Killing is killing, no matter what! Killing is killing, and therefore,
kung ina-admit niya that he is responsible for these killings, then he must be criminally
liable," she told reporters in a chance interview.

It’s not obvious to De Lima yet, it seems, but Duterte may have resorted to sanctioning
the termination of suspected criminals in his city because he finds the justice system too
slow in dealing with them. Many people not just in Davao, but also around the country
agree with him, which is why they turn a blind eye to what civilized societies refer to as
“human rights abuse”. Another irony here is that some people still think the Philippines is
a civilized society and expect people to act civilized when it is anything but.
Maguindanao massacres, anyone?

Public servants in the Philippines divide rather than unite the sentiments of Filipinos.
That’s because most of them use short cuts instead of following the law. The controversy
surrounding Duterte has certainly divided the sentiments of the Filipino people. Duterte
thinks he can justify killing suspected criminals by saying the end justifies the means and
a lot of people agree with him. His supporters cite the perceived low crime rate, economic
progress and peace and order in Davao City and credit it to Duterte’s iron-fisted
leadership. Never mind that members of the Davao Death Squad commit the most basic
crime themselves – killing people and depriving them of their right to a fair trial. We will
never know if some of those people were actually innocent of the crimes they were
suspected of committing.

With law and order in the Philippines deteriorating at a fast rate, a lot of people find
Duterte’s brand of justice “refreshing”. They think that the answer to the lack of
discipline in Philippine society can be solved using tyranny. The other irony here is that
Filipinos have forgotten former President Ferdinand Marcos already used that approach,
but he eventually got ousted in 1986 partly due to the rampant extra-judicial killings
during his reign. This should tell Filipinos something – that one man cannot bring the
kind of justice that will be applied equally to all. Only observing the rule of law can do
that.

2ND THIS HOUSE BELIEVES THAT ASSUMING THE WORLD WILL END ALL
ACTS SHOULD BE JUSTIFIED.

AFFIRMATIVE SIDE

ASSIGNMENT LATER ( DO BOTH SIDES)(7 MIN EACH)