American senators seek sanctions on 5 PHL security officials for rights violations
MORE than 20 United States legislators asked top White House officials to impose sanctions on five Philippine security officials who allegedly abetted human rights violations under the administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte, according to human rights group Karapatan.
In a statement on Monday, Karapatan said Pennsylvania 7th District Rep. Susan Wild and 23 other American lawmakers sent a letter to US State Secretary Anthony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Jan. 24 asking the US government to penalize the Philippine officials through the US Global Magnitsky Act for “widespread harassment, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and assassination of journalists, dissidents, opposition leaders, members of the clergy, and labor organizers and leaders.”
The legislators cited reports from the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups, it said.
The Magnitsky Act, enacted during the administration of former US President Barrack Obama, authorizes the American government to sanction human rights violators by banning entry into the US and freezing their assets.
The law was named after Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who, based on reports of international agencies, experienced reprisal for uncovering corruption and a tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials. He was jailed in Russia in 2008 and later died.
According to Karapatan, the US legislators said in their letter that Philippine state forces “continue to use ‘red-tagging,’ a practice in which activists and human rights groups are demonized and characterized as terrorists, as a pre-emptive move leading up to targeted assassinations, arrest without cause or other human rights abuses.”
“The United States cannot overlook the crisis in the Philippines, and we must take tangible action if we are to truly stand for human rights and the flourishing of freedom around the world,” the legislators were quoted as saying.
Kaparatan Secretary General Cristina “Tinay” E. Palabay said the targeted sanctions would help highlight the need to look into the acts and policies implemented by the Duterte administration that allegedly “resulted in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary or illegal arrests and detention, enforced disappearances and other grave human rights violations.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
