Cayetano: Duterte's War on Drugs a War to Protect Human Rights

Office of the Senator

Alan Peter S. Cayetano

Rm. 602 GSIS Complex Senate of the Philippines Roxas Blvd Pasay City

         

PRESS RELEASE

01 September 2016

Cayetano: Duterte’s war on drugs a war to protect human rights, ensure safety & welfare of Filipinos

“Our war against illegal drugs is not a war against life, but a war to fight for the lives of all Filipinos. It is not a war against human rights, but a war to protect human rights, and to ensure the safety and welfare of the Filipino family."

 Senator Alan Peter Cayetano stressed this in his privilege speech on Wednesday (August 31) amid false reports in foreign press about human rights issues in the conduct of the administration’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.

Contrary to claims of the Commission on Human Rights,  Cayetano said the government’s strong policies against criminality have made it possible for Filipino families to begin feeling safer, particularly since the government waged an all-out war on drugs.

The senator reiterated that President Rodrigo Duterte has not wavered in his commitment to uphold and protect the human rights of every Filipino at any time, contrary to what the President’s critics are trying to portray. 

He added the government’s unrelenting campaign against illegal drugs has actually improved the country’s peace and order situation.

“Narinig po natin sa sariling bibig ng ating Pangulo na ang human rights ay importante sa ating bansa. Pero hindi pwedeng gamitin ang human rights para hindi ituloy ang drug war,” Cayetano said. “If you listen to the President’s speeches… palagi niyang sinasabi that he will operate within the confines of the Philippine Constitution. He will respect the Bill of Rights and the rule of law,” he intoned. 

The senator pointed out that the drug menace has reached alarming levels that nothing short of bold and swift solutions are needed to end the problem.

He said criminality was already rampant under previous administrations at the rate of almost 1,000-2,000 incidents of murders and homicides every month. The only difference, he said, is that in the past, innocent citizens were  hounded and victimized by hardened criminals and drug pushers. But today, it’s the law that’s hounding the drug pushers and criminals, he noted.

“Don’t you feel safer today than six years ago? Wala pong sense of security ang Pilipino dati… Dati, ang takot ay ang tao… Ngayon, nararamdaman ng mga tao ang pagbabago... Ngayon ang kriminal na ang takot, hindi ang mamamayan.” he said.

Cayetano also denounced Duterte’s detractors’ penchant to blame the administration for all the drug-related killings in the country. He said the slack use of  “extrajudicial killings”  (EJKs) to label all suspected drug casualties puts in question the motive behind the investigation being conducted by Sen. Leila De Lima’s Committee on Justice.

“Are some people using the term EJK loosely not because they are human rights advocates… [but] to discredit the PNP and the Duterte administration?” Cayetano asked as he reiterated his call for De Lima to inhibit herself from the inquiry.

Cayetano said labeling the deaths of drug suspects as EJKs is obviously meant to create the wrong perception that the State is initiating the executions and is doing nothing to resolve the crimes. 

“The State, the executive department, legislative department, and the judiciary, are doing its best to ensure that the rule of law prevails. Even the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is part of the state and is already investigating,” the senator pointed out.

Cayetano, meanwhile, said he remains confident of President Duterte’s continuous efforts  to uphold human rights while also ensuring the safety and protection of all families.

A world without water?

TUE, AUGUST 30, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

As the world marked again the UN’s World Water Day last March 2016, global residents are still struggling to access fresh water. Water scarcity has long been a problem. But climate change, a growing global population and economic growth are putting the natural resource under even more stress. A world without water? Sounding impossible and crazy, while in some parts of the world, especially in Asia, the monsoon rain keeps large areas land-under.

One example of many: since the late 1950's, the Aral lake in Uzbekistan, once the world’s fourth largest, has been rapidly shrinking. Water that had flowed into the lake was diverted to provide irrigation for Uzbekistan’s ‘white gold’, cotton plantations spread across the arid region, while hydro power facilities and reservoirs across Central Asia have also taken their toll.

It is one of the major environmental disasters of the last half century with animal and plant life in the region dying out as a result. But it is not the only place where water has been disappearing. Bolivia’s second-largest lake, Poopó has all but vanished, with severe consequences for both wildlife and people.

Scarcity of water all over the world is becoming an increasing problem. And it’s only going to get worse, said Richard Connor, editor-in-chief of the United Nation’s World Water Development Report 2016 (WWDR), released last month.

“Water has already been relatively scarce,” he explained in German Television. “It’s just that populations are growing and economies are developing, so demand for water keeps increasing, but the quantity of water that is available does not.”

More than 70 percent of the freshwater that is taken from natural re-sources is used in agriculture, for food crops like wheat and rice, but also for plants like cotton. Energy production ac-counts for 15 percent of water usage and another 5 percent is for household usage.

But with the population expected to grow – the WWDR predicts that by 2050 there will be 9.3 billion people, 33 percent more than in 2011 – the world’s water resources are likely to come under increasing pressure. Regions like Central Asia, the Arab world, parts of China, India and the western United States, already suffer from a physical shortage of water. But storage and infra-structure enable countries to collect water and keep it ready in times of drought.

“The magnitude will be proportional to its vulnerability,” said Connor. “Developed countries are much less vulnerable because they have the storage capacity – dams and reservoirs.” But in the developing world, water scarcity is having the greatest impact. There are already more than 1.8 billion people, who only have access to water that is not safe for human consumption, according to the WWDR. And even in areas where there is an abundance of water, like in Sub-Saharan Africa, economic factors mean that people are not getting enough access to the natural resource.

“The water resource is there, but it doesn’t get to the fields, the factories and the cities because infrastructure and institutions are lacking there,” said Connor, adding that crops there are rain-fed because water cannot be used for irrigation. “When there is a drought, like in Ethiopia, they have serious problems that lead to food crises.”

Without improved efficiency measures, agriculture is expected to need 20 percent more water in the coming years to feed the growing population. And let’s face it again: climate is expected to exacerbate the problem, with some countries becoming drier and hotter, while others experience extreme weather in the form of storms and flooding.

A world with less water translates into hardship for unknown millions. Solution must be find. Or is it already too late?

It is only better water management that will help deal with increasing water scarcity, according to experts worldwide. .

Better irrigation techniques that don’t see water wasted through runoff from flooded fields are one way of saving the resource. But any changes in measures would have to be introduced by individual governments and in some cases individual farmers and other stakeholders.

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Email: doringklaus @gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit www.germanex patinthephilippines.blogspot. com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.