International Political Economy

Bobzorex G. Lopez April 6, 2019

AB Foreign Service Mr. Jumel G. Estrañero

The Political Economy of the Philippine Human Rights Violation towards Economic
Growth

Abstract

The Philippines is currently facing a significant decrease on economy growth.

Research has shown that Human Rights Violation cases is one of the major reasons why
the economic growth is slowing down. This aims to reveal the truth and effects behind
these recent Human Rights Violation Cases an allegations. If done properly, this could
also create an impact on the country. The method of research that will be used is
descriptive. The literature found in this research states the allegations, reports, and facts
about Human Rights Violation here in the Philippines. Therefore, this research concludes
that the Philippine Human Rights Violation decreases the economic growth.

I. Introduction

This chapter can be seen as an introductory part of this bachelor thesis, since this
chapter introduces the topic of this thesis Philippine Human Rights Violation towards
Economic Growth. Economy is an important issue for the country’s growth and people,
and the aim of this thesis is to reveal how Human Rights downturns can decrease the
country’s economic growth. This first chapter gives an introduction and the problem
statement together with research questions which will be answered further in this thesis.
The world is fast becoming a complicated place to life. Ages ago we were working on the
field and exchanging goods for other goods to survive. Lords, kings and other high class
people had the opportunity to get luxury goods due to their position. Industrial revolutions
made an end to this way of life. Today we are living’ in the third revolution which is affected
by fast economic changes and has competitive characteristics. To gain competitive
advantage, a company should continuously invest in innovation and therefore innovation
has an important leading role in today’s economy. Innovation can be defined as the
commercial or industrial application of something new, such as a new product or process,
a new type of organization, a new source of supply or product market Innovative
companies are those that have the ability to see connections, to spot opportunities and
to take advantage of them. Innovation is an expensive process whose outcomes are
uncertain (O’Sullivan, 2006). It is expensive as the innovation process requires resources
which companies may not have and need to gain, also because it takes a lot of time
before the benefits can be measured. In the meanwhile a lot of internal and external
changes can arise which may affect the outcome. As not all the companies have internal
financial possibilities, innovation can be financed with external finance. Today’s financial
crises make investors more careful in choosing the investments with higher returns. In
the case of innovative projects however, investors must be willing to take great risk even
if there is no guaranty the innovation will be a breakthrough innovation (Crawford & Di
Benedetto, 2008). Financial crisis, which have become more frequent since 1970’s, are
creating an unorthodox set of challenges for companies all over the world. According to
Nielsen (2009): “Instead of dealing with the challenges of managing growth and
expansion many companies are now faced with the challenge of maneuvering in a highly
volatile competitive landscape characterized by increased uncertainty, increased
turbulence, and a general downward trend in many aspects of the economy.” The
distinguishing feature of innovation has become crucial in today’s fast changing economy
which suffers of financial crisis now and then. According to Fischer (2004), it is scholars’
liability to protect innocent countries and their citizens by mitigating the impact of financial
crisis. To do so, this thesis will attempt to discuss how companies should manage their
innovation strategies to keep their competitive advantage in response to financial crisis.
“A crisis, such as the financial crisis that we have been experiencing over the last
couple of years, can be either an opportunity for important new innovation, or a time of
setback when innovation is delayed, or even reversed” (Shiller, 2010; 14).

II. A. Statement of the Problem

 Does the Human Rights Violations cases truly decreases the Philippine
Economic Growth? How?
 How does the issues on War on Drugs result in a bad impact on
Philippine Economy?
 Why does the extra judicial killing (EJK) decreases the percentage of
foreign investors?

B. Methodology

During Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, number of extra judicial killings

kept varying. The literature in this research shall provide a conclusion regarding
the decrease of economic growth in the Philippines. This research also shows
the facts that proves the statistics of foreign investors decrease in the past year.
This study will be leaning on the Domino Theory. It states how an influence on
something/someone would follow the same effect on the things surrounding
it/them. This study shows how the Human Rights Violation can cause a chain
reaction to the country’s economic growth.
 III. Review of Related Literature

The brutal personal costs of the Philippines’ human rights abuses

August 3, 2018, 7:01am AEST

In September 2017, Sheerah Escudero’s world came crashing down. Her beloved
younger brother Ephraim had been missing for five days and the Escudero family was
growing increasingly desperate. Then the call came: His body had been found lying by
an empty road more than 100 kilometres away in Angeles City, in Pampanga province
in the Philippines, northwest of Manila. Ephraim had been shot in the head, his body
wrapped in packing tape.
The 18-year-old had been a recreational drug user but as far as his family knew, hadn’t
used in a few years. Yet the father of two had still become ensnared in the increasingly
brutal drug war of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose government has been killing
suspected drug users and “drug pushers” since 2016. Duterte recently announced he
was ramping up his efforts.
Sheerah and her family tried to identify those responsible for Ephraim’s death. They
reported his disappearance immediately to police. Local police departments have
refused to release any information or leads. Witnesses have told Sheerah that Ephraim
was picked up by two men on a motorcycle, a common killing tactic now known as
“riding in tandem.” CCTV footage confirmed this.
Sheerah, a diminutive woman in her early 20s with a bright smile, bears the trauma of
her brother’s death with stoicism. Her Facebook page is a mix of joyful pictures with
friends at coffee shops, juxtaposed with photos of her brother’s bloodied body lying in
the street.
His death made the impact of the drug war personal in the most visceral sense — a
brother lost, a father taken too soon.
We met Sheerah in late April 2018, during a trip to the Philippines to investigate the
deteriorating human rights situation in the country — part of a broader research project
at the International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, to
understand Canada’s role in the region.
Our conversations with more than 50 human rights defenders, environmental activists,
lawyers, artists and Indigenous groups revealed troubling patterns in a country that’s
increasingly closing its borders to outsiders.
Sheerah’s story is all too common. The Duterte government’s brutal crackdown on
drugs continues unabated. Duterte has publicly galvanized the Philippine National
Police force to “slaughter them all,” proclaiming that we “can expect 20,000 to 30,000
more” deaths before the war is over.
As with any state directly targeting its own people, actual numbers are difficult to
quantify, but Human Rights Watch estimates there are more than 12,000 dead. The
body count rises daily; victims include children and young people like Sheerah’s brother
Ephraim. Their deaths destroy families and the social fabric of communities.
Sheerah’s story shows the profound and far-reaching reverberations of state-induced
violence. This violence takes many forms. For example, the regime has been explicitly
targeting human rights advocates, placing many lawyers, NGO workers and
environmental activists on a “suspected terrorist” hit list, which the government filed at a
Manila Court in March 2018.
The lawyers and organizations we spoke with in metropolitan Manila all mentioned
numerous colleagues who have been placed on this list, with some detained by the
regime, while others have ominously disappeared.

‘On the precipice of economic hardship’ | Rights violations can have consequences on
Pinoys’ livelihood – lawyer
By Interaksyon - September 27, 2017 - 11:51 PM

This was underscored by TV5 legal analyst and Far Eastern University Institute of Law
Dean Mel Sta. Maria on Tuesday during the Chief Justice Panganiban Professorial
Chairs on Liberty and Prosperity Public Lecture at FEU Makati.
In his paper “Human Rights, Politics, International Law and Trade Arrangement and
Economic Prosperity: A Reading of the Philippine Situation” Sta. Maria explained that
trade arrangements between and among countries had recently factored in the
upholding of human rights by the parties.
The Philippines is one of the countries benefiting from the EU’s Special Incentive
Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance (GSP+). Products
such as processed fruit, coconut oil, footwear, fish, and textiles are among thousands
that enter the EU with eliminated or greatly reduced tariffs under GSP+.
Sta. Maria observed, however, that the Philippines was not compliant with many of
these human rights-related conventions, especially the following:

1. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

2. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
3. Convention on the Rights of the Child
4. United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances
5. United Nations Convention against Corruption

Although the GSP+ is valid until 2023, the EU says it monitors whether beneficiaries are
abiding by its commitments.
Sta. Maria cited a Philippine Star report in May 2017 that the EU was the biggest and
fastest-growing export market for Philippine goods, with USD901 million of total exports.
According to the same report, however, the European Parliament had said, referring to
the spate of extrajudicial killings related to the Philippines’ war on drugs, that “in the
absence of any substantive improvements in the next few months, procedural steps (will
be taken) with a view to the possible removal of GSP+ preferences.”
“A removal of the EU GSP+ will impact our economy negatively,” said Sta. Maria.

Dire consequences

“Consequently, this may entail increased expense on the part of Philippine exporters,”
he warned. “They will pay entry-charges and taxes collectively amounting to millions of
dollars. Money previously available and used to answer for salaries, employee benefits,
government-mandated contributions, supplier bills, overseas transport expenses, local
taxes, and other costs of production will be considerably reduced.”

He continued, “Also, exporters may be constrained not to fill up orders, depriving local
suppliers of much-needed business. This will mean less exports and thus, less income
for the exporters and the country. Worse, affected companies may resort to employee
lay-offs in order to survive the adverse economic impact of the reduction in business.
The children and spouses of these laid-off employees will ultimately suffer a period of
economic hardship – debts may not be paid, mortgages may be foreclosed, loans with
high interest incurred, assets sold to meet obligations, and schooling on the part of
children momentarily stopped, among others.”

Despite these possible consequences of the Philippines’ failure to respect human rights,
President Rodrigo Duterte himself had said, “I don’t care about human rights, you better
believe me.”

“Every time President Duterte says, ‘I will kill you,’ or when he said, referring to three
million drug addicts, ‘I’d be happy to slaughter them,’ he, the head of state, conveys a
deadly message discordant with the rule of law. He even threatened to include human
rights advocates: ‘I will include you because you are the reason why their numbers
swell.’ Misinterpreted to their extreme, the declarations may be taken as words of
encouragement, especially for people in authority like the Philippine National Police
officers, to have the same motivation and objective. Put into action and ultimate fruition,
it is EJK,” said Sta. Maria.

But in the Philippines, the death penalty was prohibited under Republic Act No. 9346.

“No one is above the law. Not even the Supreme Court can order death as punishment;
neither can the President. For the death penalty to be imposed, the law must be
amended to allow it. But even if an amendment is done, the President still has no power
to order the killing of people because only the judiciary can impose punishment. That is
the rule of law in our country. Any death sentence ordered by any other entity or person
outside of the courts is extrajudicial. And if the order is carried out, it is EJK, short for
extrajudicial killing – the commission of murder no less,” Sta. Maria stressed.

This, he said, is in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Although EJK was not yet a term used in Philippine laws, it was used to highlight its
gravity over other types of murder, said Sta. Maria: “that it is the brutal extermination of
ordinary people, especially the poor and the young, caused or executed usually by state
agents.”
Message of impunity

He was also worried about Duterte’s assurance to law enforcers that he would pardon
them if they killed suspected criminals involved in drugs. This conveyed a message of
impunity, which Sta. Maria defined simply as “crime without accountability.”

As for the violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), Sta. Maria criticized Duterte for his messages that made
light of rape.

“Remember during President Duterte’s meeting on May 26, 2017 with soldiers of the
2nd Mechanized Brigade of the Philippine Army in Iligan City, he jokingly said that, in
the implementation of Martial Law, ”Pag naka-rape ka ng tatlo, aminin ko na akin ‘yun (If
you rape three times, I’ll take the blame).’ This is a very bad joke. Under Section 7(1)(g)
of the International Criminal Court Statute of which the Philippines is a state-party, rape
committed during armed conflict is a crime against humanity. Soldiers must not commit
rape during war or at any time. They should be advised not to listen to this kind of talk,
whether uttered seriously or by way of a jest. How can the President go so low in his
attitude toward women, especially in areas of conflict? These are not joking matters,”
Sta. Maria said.

The Philippines was also violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child, he said,
when state agents exploited children. His example: when Caloocan City police recently
searched the home of a 51-year-old woman and stole cash and watches amounting to
P30,000, using a minor to do the theft.

“More alarming though are the apprehension, torture, and eventual killings of the youth,
like Kian delos Santos, Karl Angelo Arnaiz, and Reynaldo De Guzman, without due
process,” Sta. Maria said.
Among the conditions to be eligible for GSP+, according to the European Commission
website, are: that the country must have ratified the 27 GSP+ relevant international
conventions on human and labor rights, environmental protection, and good
governance; and that the monitoring bodies under those conventions have not identified
any serious failure to effectively implement them.

The country has opened itself to accusations of having violated the United Nations
Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, as well
as the United Nations Convention against Corruption, too, in his view.

“The present controversy of the entry of huge amounts of shabu valued at no less than
P6.4 billion at the very portals of a government agency, the Bureau of Customs, is
unbelievable. No doubt, corruption involving huge amounts of ‘tara,’ meaning bribes,
changed hands. Illegal narcotics came in so easily,” Sta. Maria said.

He continued, “Such entry boggles the mind and smacks of connivance or corrupt
collusion, if not gross negligence. And also, what is supposed to be the Philippines’
most secured place – the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa – is not impervious to
drugs. Trading and corruption inside are rampant, and the government appears helpless
to stop it.”

Would the EU impose sanctions on the Philippines?

“In similar situations where violation of rights has been prevalent, these granting-
countries can be unwavering in sanctions, as in the Myanmar case – whose GSP,
however, has already been reinstated. In some cases, they have been slow in meting
out sanctions and, in other cases, only warnings were made without any follow through,”
Sta. Maria said.

Nevertheless, he said, “the incriminating events and institutional set-ups in relation to

the Philippines’ compliance or non-compliance [with] its obligations regarding core
human rights principles, as well as proper governance, give GSP+ and foreign aid
providers enough standing justification to either suspend the entitlement of the
Philippines or straightforwardly withdraw it.”

He asked, “The country is experiencing some measure of economic growth, but how
long will this last? If it will last for some time more, will it just be ‘business as usual’
without any improvements in the Philippines’ observance of core human rights values?
Or is the Philippines bringing itself near the precipice of economic hardship?”

The human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines

Vanda Felbab-BrownTuesday, August 8, 2017

Editor's Note:
On August 2, 2017, Vanda Felbab-Brown submitted a statement for the record for the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on the human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the
Philippines. Read her full statement below.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines is morally and legally
unjustifiable. Resulting in egregious and large-scale violations of human rights, it
amounts to state-sanctioned murder. It is also counterproductive for countering the
threats and harms that the illegal drug trade and use pose to society — exacerbating
both problems while profoundly shredding the social fabric and rule of law in the
Philippines. The United States and the international community must condemn and
sanction the government of the Philippines for its conduct of the war on drugs.

THE SLAUGHTER SO FAR

On September 2, 2016 after a bomb went off in Davao where Duterte had been mayor
for 22 years, the Philippine president declared a “state of lawlessness”1 in the country.
That is indeed what he unleashed in the name of fighting crime and drugs since he
became the country’s president on June 30, 2016. With his explicit calls for police to kill
drug users and dealers2 and the vigilante purges Duterte ordered of neighborhoods,3
almost 9000 people accused of drug dealing or drug use were killed in the Philippines in
the first year of his government – about one third by police in anti-drug operations.4
Although portrayed as self-defense shootings, these acknowledged police killings are
widely believed to be planned and staged, with security cameras and street lights
unplugged, and drugs and guns planted on the victim after the shooting.5 According to
the interviews and an unpublished report an intelligence officer shared with Reuters, the
police are paid about 10,000 pesos ($200) for each killing of a drug suspect as well as
other accused criminals. The monetary awards for each killing are alleged to rise to
20,000 pesos ($400) for a street pusher, 50,000 pesos ($990) for a member of a
neighborhood council, one million pesos ($20,000) for distributors, retailers, and
wholesalers, and five million ($100,000) for “drug lords.” Under pressure from higher-up
authorities and top officials, local police officers and members of neighborhood councils
draw up lists of drug suspects. Lacking any kind transparency, accountability, and
vetting, these so-called “watch lists” end up as de facto hit lists. A Reuters investigation
revealed that police officers were killing some 97 percent of drug suspects during police
raids,6 an extraordinarily high number and one that many times surpasses accountable
police practices. That is hardly surprising, as police officers are not paid any cash
rewards for merely arresting suspects. Both police officers and members of
neighborhood councils are afraid not to participate in the killing policies, fearing that if
they fail to comply they will be put on the kill lists themselves.

Similarly, there is widespread suspicion among human rights groups and monitors,7
reported in regularly in the international press, that the police back and encourage the
other extrajudicial killings — with police officers paying assassins or posing as vigilante
groups.8 A Reuters interview with a retired Filipino police intelligence officer and
another active-duty police commander reported both officers describing in granular
detail how under instructions from top-level authorities and local commanders, police
units mastermind the killings.9 No systematic investigations and prosecutions of these
murders have taken place, with top police officials suggesting that they are killings
among drug dealers themselves.10

Such illegal vigilante justice, with some 1,400 extrajudicial killings,11 was also the
hallmark of Duterte’s tenure as Davao’s mayor, earning him the nickname Duterte
Harry. And yet, far from being an exemplar of public safety and crime-free city, Davao
remains the murder capital of the Philippines.12 The current police chief of the
Philippine National Police Ronald Dela Rosa and President Duterte’s principal executor
of the war on drugs previously served as the police chief in Davao between 2010 and
2016 when Duterte was the town’s mayor.

In addition to the killings, mass incarceration of alleged drug users is also under way in
the Philippines. The government claims that more than a million users and street-level
dealers have voluntarily “surrendered” to the police. Many do so out of fear of being
killed otherwise. However, in interviews with Reuters, a Philippine police commander
alleged that the police are given quotas of “surrenders,” filling them by arresting anyone
on trivial violations (such as being shirtless or drunk).13 Once again, the rule of law is
fundamentally perverted to serve a deeply misguided and reprehensible state policy.
SMART DESIGN OF DRUG POLICIES VERSUS THE PHILIPPINES REALITY
Smart policies for addressing drug retail markets look very different than the violence
and state-sponsored crime President Duterte has thrust upon the Philippines. Rather
than state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings and mass incarceration, policing retail
markets should have several objectives: The first, and most important, is to make drug
retail markets as non-violent as possible. Duterte’s policy does just the opposite: in
slaughtering people, it is making a drug-distribution market that was initially rather
peaceful (certainly compared to Latin America,14 such as in Brazil15) very violent – this
largely the result of the state actions, extrajudicial killings, and vigilante killings he has
ordered. Worse yet, the police and extrajudicial killings hide other murders, as
neighbors and neighborhood committees put on the list of drug suspects their rivals and
people whose land or property they want to steal; thus, anyone can be killed by anyone
and then labeled a pusher.

The unaccountable en masse prosecution of anyone accused of drug trade involvement

or drug use also serves as a mechanism to squash political pluralism and eliminate
political opposition. Those who dare challenge President Duterte and his reprehensible
policies are accused of drug trafficking charges and arrested themselves. The most
prominent case is that of Senator Leila de Lima. But it includes many other lower-level
politicians. Without disclosing credible evidence or convening a fair trial, President
Duterte has ordered the arrest of scores of politicians accused of drug-trade links; three
such accused mayors have died during police arrests, often with many other individuals
dying in the shoot-outs. The latest such incident occurred on July 30, 2017 when
Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz in the southern Philippines, was killed during a
police raid on his house, along with Parojinog’s wife and at least five other people.

Another crucial goal of drug policy should be to enhance public health and limit the
spread of diseases linked to drug use. The worst possible policy is to push addicts into
the shadows, ostracize them, and increase the chance of overdoses as well as a rapid
spread of HIV/AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and hepatitis. In prisons, users will not
get adequate treatment for either their addiction or their communicable disease. That is
the reason why other countries that initially adopted similar draconian wars on drugs
(such as Thailand in 200116 and Vietnam in the same decade17) eventually tried to
backpedal from them, despite the initial popularity of such policies with publics in East
Asia. Even though throughout East Asia, tough drug policies toward drug use and the
illegal drug trade remain government default policies and often receive widespread
support, countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, and even Myanmar have gradually
begun to experiment with or are exploring HARM reduction approaches, such as safe
needle exchange programs and methadone maintenance, as the ineffective and
counterproductive nature and human rights costs of the harsh war on drugs campaign
become evident.

Moreover, frightening and stigmatizing drug users and pushing use deeper underground
will only exacerbate the spread of infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and
tuberculosis. Even prior to the Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, the rate of HIV infections in
the Philippines has been soaring due to inadequate awareness and failure to support
safe sex practices, such as access to condoms. Along with Afghanistan, the Philippine
HIV infection rate is the highest in Asia, increasing 50 percent between 2010 and
2015.18 Among high-risk groups, including injection- drug users, gay men, transgender
women, and female prostitutes, the rate of new infections jumped by 230 percent
between 2011and 2015. Duterte’s war on drugs will only intensify these worrisome
trends among drug users.

Further, as Central America has painfully learned in its struggles against street gangs,
mass incarceration policies turn prisons into recruiting grounds for organized crime.
Given persisting jihadi terrorism in the Philippines, mass imprisonment of low-level
dealers and drug traffickers which mix them with terrorists in prisons can result in the
establishment of dangerous alliances between terrorists and criminals, as has
happened in Indonesia.

The mass killings and imprisonment in the Philippines will not dry up demand for drugs:
the many people who will end up in overcrowded prisons and poorly-designed treatment
centers (as is already happening) will likely remain addicted to drugs, or become
addicts. There is always drug smuggling into prisons and many prisons are major drug
distribution and consumption spots.

Even when those who surrendered are placed into so-called treatment centers, instead
of outright prisons, large problems remain. Many who surrendered do not necessarily
have a drug abuse problem as they surrendered preemptively to avoid being killed if
they for whatever reason ended up on the watch list. Those who do have a drug
addiction problem mostly do not receive adequate care. Treatment for drug addiction is
highly underdeveloped and underprovided in the Philippines, and China’s rushing in to
build larger treatment facilities is unlikely to resolve this problem. In China itself, many
so-called treatment centers often amounted to de facto prisons or force-labor detention
centers, with highly questionable methods of treatment and very high relapse rates.

As long as there is demand, supply and retailing will persist, simply taking another form.
Indeed, there is a high chance that Duterte’s hunting down of low-level pushers (and
those accused of being pushers) will significantly increase organized crime in the
Philippines and intensify corruption. The dealers and traffickers who will remain on the
streets will only be those who can either violently oppose law enforcement and vigilante
groups or bribe their way to the highest positions of power. By eliminating low-level,
mostly non-violent dealers, Duterte is paradoxically and counterproductively setting up a
situation where more organized and powerful drug traffickers and distribution will
emerge.

Inducing police to engage in de facto shoot-to-kill policies is enormously corrosive of law

enforcement, not to mention the rule of law. There is a high chance that the policy will
more than ever institutionalize top-level corruption, as only powerful drug traffickers will
be able to bribe their way into upper-levels of the Philippine law enforcement system,
and the government will stay in business. Moreover, corrupt top-level cops and
government officials tasked with such witch-hunts will have the perfect opportunity to
direct law enforcement against their drug business rivals as well as political enemies,
and themselves become the top drug capos. Unaccountable police officers officially
induced to engage in extrajudicial killings easily succumb to engaging in all kinds of
criminality, being uniquely privileged to take over criminal markets. Those who should
protect public safety and the rule of law themselves become criminals.

Such corrosion of the law enforcement agencies is well under way in the Philippines as
a result of President Duterte’s war on drugs. Corruption and the lack of accountability in
the Philippine police l preceded Duterte’s presidency, but have become exacerbated
since, with the war on drugs blatant violations of rule of law and basic legal and human
rights principles a direct driver. The issue surfaced visibly and in a way that the
government of the Philippines could not simply ignore in January 2017 when Philippine
drug squad police officers kidnapped a South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo and
extorted his family for money. Jee was ultimately killed inside the police headquarters.
President Duterte expressed outrage and for a month suspended the national police
from participating in the war on drugs while some police purges took places. Rather
than a serious effort to root out corruption, those purges served principally to tighten
control over the police. The wrong-headed illegal policies of Duterte’s war on drugs
were not examined or corrected. Nor were other accountability and rule of law practices
reinforced. Thus when after a month the national police were was asked to resume their
role in the war on the drugs, the perverted system slid back into the same human rights
violations and other highly detrimental processes and outcomes.

WHAT COUNTERNARCOTICS POLICIES THE PHILIPPINES SHOULD ADOPT

The Philippines should adopt radically different approaches: The shoot-to-kill directives
to police and calls for extrajudicial killings should stop immediately, as should dragnets
against low-level pushers and users. If such orders are issued, prosecutions of any
new extrajudicial killings and investigations of encounter killings must follow. In the short
term, the existence of pervasive culpability may prevent the adoption of any policy that
would seek to investigate and prosecute police and government officials and members
of neighborhood councils who have been involved in the state-sanctioned slaughter. If
political leadership in the Philippines changes, however, standing up a truth commission
will be paramount. In the meantime, however, all existing arrested drug suspects need
to be given fair trials or released.

Law-enforcement and rule of law components of drug policy designs need to make
reducing criminal violence and violent militancy among their highest objectives. The
Philippines should build up real intelligence on the drug trafficking networks that
President Duterte alleges exist in the Philippines and target their middle operational
layers, rather than low-level dealers, as well as their corruption networks in the
government and law enforcement. However, the latter must not be used to cover up
eliminating rival politicians and independent political voices.

To deal with addiction, the Philippines should adopt enlightened harm-reduction

measures, including methadone maintenance, safe-needle exchange, and access to
effective treatment. No doubt, these are difficult and elusive for methamphetamines, the
drug of choice in the Philippines. Meth addiction is very difficult to treat and is
associated with high morbidity levels. Instead of turning his country into a lawless Wild
East, President Duterte should make the Philippines the center of collaborative East
Asian research on how to develop effective public health approaches to
methamphetamine addiction.

IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. POLICY

It is imperative that the United States strongly and unequivocally condemns the war on
drugs in the Philippines and deploys sanctions until state-sanctioned extrajudicial
killings and other state-authorized rule of law violations are ended. The United States
should adopt such a position even if President Duterte again threatens the U.S.-
Philippines naval bases agreements meant to provide the Philippines and other
countries with protection against China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea.
President Duterte’s pro-China preferences will not be moderated by the United States
being cowed into condoning egregious violations of human rights. In fact, a healthy
U.S.-Philippine long-term relationship will be undermined by U.S. silence on state-
sanctioned murder.

However, the United States must recognize that drug use in the Philippines and East
Asia more broadly constitute serious threats to society. Although internationally
condemned for the war on drugs, President Duterte remains highly popular in the
Philippines, with 80 percent of Filipinos still expressing “much trust” for him after a year
of his war on drugs and 9,000 people dead.19 Unlike in Latin America, throughout East
Asia, drug use is highly disapproved of, with little empathy for users and only very weak
support for drug policy reform. Throughout the region, as well as in the Philippines,
tough-on-drugs approaches, despite their ineffective outcomes and human rights
violations, often remain popular. Fostering an honest and complete public discussion
about the pros and cons of various drug policy approaches is a necessary element in
creating public demand for accountability of drug policy in the Philippines.

Equally important is to develop better public health approaches to dealing with

methamphetamine addiction. It is devastating throughout East Asia as well as in the
United States, though opiate abuse mortality rates now eclipse methamphetamine drug
abuse problems. Meth addiction is very hard to treat and often results in severe
morbidity. Yet harm reduction approaches have been predominately geared toward
opiate and heroin addictions, with substitution treatments, such as methadone, not
easily available for meth and other harm reduction approaches also not directly
applicable.

What has been happening in the Philippines is tragic and unconscionable. But if the
United States can at least take a leading role in developing harm reduction and effective
treatment approaches toward methamphetamine abuse, its condemnation of
unjustifiable and reprehensible policies, such as President Duterte’s war on drugs in the
Philippines, will far more soundly resonate in East Asia, better stimulating local publics
to demand accountability and respect for rule of law from their leaders.
POWERING THROUGH A CRISIS
Defending human rights under Duterte

Dedicated and passionate, Rosales did not let fear and intimidation get between him
and his commitment to fair labor practices. In the last couple of years, he extended his
human rights work to families of victims of extrajudicial killings under the Duterte
administration through the RISE UP movement.
But on August 8, after Rosales boarded a public jeepney to Mandaue City, a gunman in
the same vehicle pumped 3 bullets into the activist's head – killing him on the spot.
The human rights movement lost another of its own.
Human rights group Front Line Defenders, which is based in Ireland, said that in 2017
alone, 60 defenders died at the hands of unidentified gunmen in the Philippines.
This reality is not new or unique to the Duterte administration. Since 2001, there have
been at least 613 documented killings of human rights defenders: 474 during the
administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001-2010) and 139 under then-president
Benigno Aquino III (2010-2016).
The Philippines has continuously been among the 6 countries that account for 80% of
the deaths of defenders worldwide – along with Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala,
Honduras, and Mexico.
In 2017, also according to Front Line Defenders, the country recorded the most number
of deaths outside of the Americas. In Asia, the “remotely comparable level of killings” is
India.
Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), meanwhile, documented 26 cases of
killings from January to June 2018.
There are several reasons for the unending hostility, according to Jim Loughran, head
of Front Line Defenders’ HRD [Human Rights Defenders] Memorial Project.
“This is a pattern continuing into the present rooted in endemic impunity, a dysfunctional
legal system, and official hostility to the work of human rights defenders,” he told
Rappler.

IV. Presentation, Interpretation & Analysis

Grave numbers: The continued killing legacy under Duterte

By the first month of Duterte’s second year in office, reported cases of politically-
motivated extrajudicial killings are up by 10 from the 68 recorded as of June 30.
Seventy-six out of a total of 78 victims are from the peasant sector, 22 of whom come
from the national minorities, data from human rights group Karapatan showed.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) strongly condemned the killings and
attributed these attacks to the worsening state of land problem in the country. Instead of
pursuing his promise to support genuine land reform, Duterte allowed the killings,
militarization of communities and implementation of martial law in Min-danao under his
first year in office, KMP Chairman Danilo Ramos said.

Killing fields

On July 25, the day Duterte delivered his second State of the Nation Address, fisherfolk
leader Alberto Tecson was killed by six suspected state forces at 10 p.m., in his house
in Bulado village, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental. Forty-five-year old Tecson was the
chair of the Guihulngan chapter of fisherfolk group Pamalakaya, who led the campaign
against the strict fishing rules and exorbitant fees imposed on small fisherfolk under the
Amended Fisheries Code or Republic Act 10654.

His wife said members of the 79th Infantry Battalion (IB) accused Tecson of transporting
armed groups using his pump boat a day before the shooting incident happened. On
July 24, the military returned to their commu-nity while residents were at a rally.

A similar case also happened in Maragusan, Compostela Valley where peasant activist
Boy Cañete was shot dead by soldiers allegedly under the 71st and 46th infantry
battalion, at around 6 p.m. of July 21. Cañete was an active advocate of the peasant’s
struggle for genuine land reform, according to Karapatan-Southern Min-danao Region
(Karapatan-SMR).

“We strongly condemn this latest incident of political killing in the region perpetrated by
government troops under Duterte’s desperate extension of martial law. These troops
are using the imposition of martial law as a license to execute fascist acts on civilian
populace, notably on individuals directly participating in the demo-cratic assertion of the
people’s legitimate demands,” Jay Apiag of Karapatan-SMR said in a statement.

Tecson and Cañete are only two of the 50 organized victims killed as of July 2017.
Based on Karapatan re-ports, more than half of the extrajudicial killings are also from
the Mindanao region.

Still in Mindanao, on July 6, in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon, members of the paramilitary

group Alamara shot dead Ande Latuan, a member of the Lumad group Pigyayungaan.
Latuan was aboard his motorcycle along with Lumad woman Alang Kaligunan when
they were blocked by five Alamara men at the Cabanglasan town proper. One of the
Alamara, Mako Santos fired two shots at Latuan, who instantly died. The paramilitary
men threatened to also kill Kaligunan if she tells anyone. The group Pigyayungaan has
strongly advocated the protection of Lumad ancestral lands and government use of
paramilitary men as investment defense forces.

Total Approved Foreign Investments Reached PhP 14.2 billion in Q1 2018

Reference No.07 June 2018

Total foreign investments (FI) approved in the first quarter of 2018 by the seven
investment promotion agencies (IPAs), namely: Board of Investments (BOI), Clark
Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), and
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) as well as the Authority of the Freeport Area
of Bataan (AFAB), BOI-Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BOI-ARMM), and
Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) amounted to PhP 14.2 billion. This was 37.9
percent lower compared with the PhP 22.9 billion approved in the same period last year.
Among the top investing counries, during the quarter, Japan topped with PhP 7.9 billion
accounting for 55.3 percent of the total FI commitments. United Kingdom and
Netherlands came in second and third pledging PhP 1.5 billion and Php 878.5 million, or
10.9 percent and 6.2 percent of the total approved FI, respectively.

Manufacturing bested all other industries as it stands to receive 64.1 percent of total FI
pledges or PhP 9.1 billion. Administrative and Support Service Activities came in
second with investment commitments valued at PhP 1.80 billion, or 12.7 percent of the
total FI. Real Estate Activities followed with PhP 1.81 billion, or 12.6 percent of the total
FI.

In terms of location, majority of the approved foreign investments in the first quarter of
2018 would be intended to finance projects in CALABARZON amounting to PhP 7.4
billion or 52.0 percent. This was followed by the National Capital Region with PhP 3.2
billion or 22.5 percent, and Northern Mindanao with PhP 1.6 billion or 11.5 percent.

Approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals in the first quarter of 2018 grew
by 52.3 percent, nearly PhP 185.0 billion from PhP 121.5 billion in the same period last
year. Filipino nationals shared PhP 170.8 billion worth of investments pledges or 92.3
percent of the total approved investments during the quarter.

Foreign and Filipino projects approved by the seven IPAs in the first quarter of 2018 are
expected to generate 33,704 jobs. This is 38.4 percent lower compared with previous
year’s projected employment. Out of these anticipated jobs, 66.9 percent or 22,535 jobs
would come from projects with foreign interest.
Total Approved Foreign Investments up by 61.1 percent in Q3 2017
Reference No.: 2017 – 154 Release Date: 14 December 2017

Total foreign investments (FI) approved in the third quarter of 2017 by the seven
investment promotion agencies (IPAs), namely: Board of Investments (BOI), Clark
Development Corporation (CDC), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), and
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) as well as the Authority of the Freeport Area
of Bataan (AFAB), BOI-Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BOI-ARMM), and
Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) amounted to PhP 43.0 billion. This was 61.1
percent higher compared with PhP 26.7 billion last year. Meanwhile, total approved FI
for the first nine months of the year reached PhP 84.1 billion, a decline of 9.9 percent
from PhP 93.3 billion in the previous year.

The top three prospective investing countries for the third quarter of 2017 include
Japan, Taiwan and Australia. Japan committed PhP 21.4 billion or 49.7 percent share of
the total investments during the quarter. Taiwan and Australia pledged PhP 8.9 billion
and PhP 2.8 billion, or 20.6 percent and 6.4 percent of the total approved FI,
respectively.

Manufacturing would receive the largest amount of foreign investments approved in the
third quarter of 2017 with PhP 25.1 billion or 58.2 percent share. Real Estate Activities
came in second with investment pledges valued at PhP 10.1 billion or 23.5 percent
share, followed by Administrative and Support Service Activities at PhP 2.9 billion or 6.7
percent share.

In terms of location, majority of the approved foreign investments in the third quarter of
2017 would be intended to finance projects in Region IV-A CALABARZON amounting to
PhP 21.7 billion or 50.4 percent. Ilocos Region would received the second highest
amount at PhP 8.4 billion, representing 19.5 percent. This is followed by the NCR –
National Capital Region at PhP 4.1 billion or 9.5 percent.
Approved investments of foreign and Filipino nationals reached PhP 274.4 billion in the
third quarter of 2017, more than double compared with PhP 133.8 billion in the previous
year. Filipino nationals continued to dominate the investments approved during the
quarter, sharing 84.3 percent or PhP 231.3 billion worth of pledges.

Total projects of foreign and Filipino investors approved by the seven IPAs for the third
quarter of 2017 are expected to generate 37,891 jobs. Out of the total anticipated jobs
for the period, 72.7 percent would come from projects with foreign interest.

V. Summary, Conclusion & Recommendation

This study aimed to analyze and identify the most frequent news category regarding
Human Rights Violation cases and Economic Growth in the Philippines. These factors
served as the sources of the data gathered by the researcher. Findings indicated that the
economic growth in the Philippines decreased because of recent events. Number of
foreign investors decreased during Duterte administration and this had an impact on the
country’s economic development.

VI. References

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https://theconversation.com/the-brutal-personal-costs-of-the-philippines-human-rights-
abuses-100694
‘On the precipice of economic hardship’ | Rights violations can have consequences on
Pinoys’ livelihood is retrieved from http://www.interaksyon.com/breaking-
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The human rights consequences of the war on drugs in the Philippines is retrieved from
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drugs-in-the-philippines/
POWERING THROUGH A CRISIS Defending human rights under Duterte retrieved
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under-duterte-administration
Grave numbers: The continued killing legacy under Duterte retrieved from
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Total Approved Foreign Investments Reached PhP 14.2 billion in Q1 2018 is retrieved
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Total Approved Foreign Investments up by 61.1 percent in Q3 2017 is retrieved from
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