ILPS US Condemns Duterte Regime's Terror Tagging of Activists & Demands Rejection of Presidential Spokesperson to the UN International Law Commission
ILPS US condemns the blatant lies of the regime of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte in its desperate attempt to cling to power and pave the way for clearing Duterte and his cronies of the countless grave human rights violations committed by his administration. We call for the rejection of the Presidential spokesperson, Harry Roque, from his unscrupulous bid to be elected to the UN International Law Commission. We demand accountability for Roque’s crimes, as well as Duterte and his entire administration.
In a move to protect Duterte and his minions on the international front, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has been nominated to the United Nations International Law Commission - an international body that helps develop and codify international law. If elected, he would make it even more difficult to charge fascist criminals like Duterte through the UN International Criminal Court and UN Human Rights Council.
The Duterte administration is currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity" and has been mired in a number of corruption scandals linked to the gross mismanagement of public funds earmarked for pandemic relief and assistance. Amidst this corruption investigation, Harry Roque spent government funds to promote his candidacy to the UN ILC at an upscale midtown Manhattan restaurant last October 29. Activists with BAYAN USA, a member organization of ILPS US, effectively disrupted the cocktail party and humiliated Harry Roque in his desperate bid to impress UN representatives at the dinner. Roque has yet to respond to the protesters’ demand that the receipts from the dinner be released.
In the wake of this protest action, Harry Roque, pro-Duterte media outlets and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) released statements to denounce the protests in New York. ILPS US was among the legitimate people’s organizations that were tagged as terrorists by the administration. We recognize this as a pathetic deflection tactic to distract the public from the real issues highlighted by the protest—the gross human rights violations, mismanagement of public funds, and criminal neglect and selling out of the Filipino people by the Duterte administration.
Throughout his administration, President Duterte has waged an all-out-war against his opponents. This repression picked up steam with the passage of the Anti-Terror Law and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), a government formation established by Duterte that weaponized the Philippine civilian bureaucracy against his opponents. Even celebrities and prominent personalities like the first Olympic gold medalist for the Philippines - Hidilyn Diaz - have come under attack.
These McCarthyite tactics of the Duterte regime are tired counterinsurgency tactics borrowed from a shared reactionary playbook all over the world, many of which were learned from the U.S.--the Philippines’ colonial master since the early 1900s. In fact, current Philippine counterinsurgency operations were patterned after the U.S. Counterinsurgency Manual. From Indonesia’s Suharto to Colombia’s Duque, pointing fingers at righteous protesters and dissidents diverts the public’s attention from mass genocide and the plunder of ruling elites and multi-national corporations. Here in the US, Biden’s recent announcement on a National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism is an example of counterinsurgency against progressive activists in the name of protecting the public.
The ruling class constantly needs a scapegoat for its unsustainable practices under neoliberalism which disproportionately impact workers, peasants and indigenous people. History has shown us that no amount of state repression and terror-tagging will deter the masses from rising up against their oppressors. As long as the crisis of imperialism continues, so does our struggle to end it, for imperialists and their puppets are known to be the real terrorists against the people. Until imperialism is brought to a resolute end, people’s organizations like those in ILPS US will continue to unite and fight, unafraid and undeterred.
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