MANILA (SE): “Online bashers have clearly demonstrated the continuing threat of a Duterte ‘hate’ network to families-victims as well as to witnesses of drug-related killings,” Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an advocacy group supporting drug war victims, said in a statement on March 17, according to a LiCAS News report.
Renewed threats and harassment targeting witnesses and families of victims of the Philippine drug war of former Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has seen a resurgence since he was taken into custody at Ninoy Aquino International Airport on March 11.
Duterte was remanded to The Hague to stand trial before the International Criminal Court [ICC] for alleged crimes against humanity committed during his administration’s anti-drug campaign.
“In these last few days, there has been a sharp spike in hate speech, threats, and harassment, especially targeted at women who have been speaking out on the killing of their loved ones,” Rise Up for Life and for Rights added.
Online bashers have clearly demonstrated the continuing threat of a Duterte ‘hate’ network to families-victims as well as to witnesses of drug-related killings
Rise Up for Life and for Rights
“The Internet is also again suddenly flooded with misleading and downright false information deliberately designed to drumbeat support or magnify support for Duterte, some even resorting to victims’ families’ character assassination, sparing not even the judges of the ICC,” the group’s statement read.
“The volume of these incidents is incontrovertible evidence that Rodrigo Duterte, himself and the hate and violent culture he enables, is still a threat to victims who dare to speak up or testify,” it said.
Carlos Conde, senior researcher of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said, “Disinformation and fake news are very concerning. It looks like the Duterte camp is going all-out in misleading and misinforming the public,” UCAN reported on March 17
Conde said use of disinformation for political gain is an old tactic employed by Duterte and his backers. Surveys show approximately 87 million out of a total of 115 Filipinos use social media sites like Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, for quick information.
“The challenge is for people, ordinary people, to take their own initiative to combat disinformation,” Conde said, recalling the time when the Duterte regime targeted him for his advocacy against human rights violations including the deadly war against drugs.
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Some of the fake news making the rounds on social media are a meme showing US president, Donald Trump, lending support to Duterte, and Duterte disappearing from the ICC detention centre, UCAN reported.
The challenge is for people, ordinary people, to take their own initiative to combat disinformation
Rise Up for Life and for Rights
Others instances include a fake narrative saying that Duterte was not receiving medical assistance at the ICC, the mass resignation of police and army personnel over Duterte’s arrest, and many other memes featuring fictional legal personalities from American TV shows supporting the former president.
Without directly commenting on Dutrete’s arrest, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan warned that misinformation and division threaten to deepen the nation’s fractures amid heightened political tensions, CBCP News reported.
Archbishop Villegas said. “Let us widen the space for sobriety,”stressing the need for truth as the foundation of public discourse, calling on Filipinos to verify their sources of information.
“With sobriety hopefully comes critical thinking,” he said. “So much misinformation, disinformation and mal-information are in cyberspace. The only basis for our words and actions must be the truth and nothing else.”
The archbishop urged Filipinos to refrain from seeking vengeance or taking pleasure in others’ suffering. “It does not help to gloat and rejoice in the sufferings of others,” he said.
Archbishop Villegas called for self-reflection and a renewed sense of patriotism rooted in faith rather than partisan politics, in the Season of Lent, CBCP News reported.
Warning against granting Duterte any interim release, Rise Up for Life and for Rights cautioned, “His penchant for revenge is strong. His record shows his propensity to incite people to take revenge and inflict violence and, sadly, this has seeped into the minds and behaviours of many.”
LiCAS News reported the group as saying, “Thousands of families who had loved ones killed in the so-called ‘war on drugs’ are praying for justice. As a society, we need to help them to come forward and speak for the truth.”
