CALLING the Duterte drug war a “pro-life campaign” is a dangerous distortion of human rights that insults due process, diminishes the sanctity of life and ignores the bloodshed that the Constitution requires public officials to confront with accountability.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante, president of the Bible Believers League for Morality and Democracy (BIBLEMODE) International and chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights, issued the statement after Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano defended the drug war and called the campaign against illegal drugs a “human rights campaign” and a “pro-life campaign.”
“Let me remind SP Cayetano that we are not a socialist nor a communist country. And he should realize no one can escape accountability,” Abante said.
“We are a nation under God and the Constitution even says that life is sacred. He is supposed to be brilliant, who knows the Constitution,” Abante stated.
The Duterte drug war has remained one of the country’s most divisive human rights issues, with families of victims continuing to seek justice and accountability while the International Criminal Court pursues crimes against humanity allegations linked to the anti-drug campaign.
Abante said a proper understanding of human rights cannot be reduced to protecting the public from illegal drugs while disregarding the lives of those killed outside the protection of law.
“He should study the real definition of human rights as enshrined in the Constitution. Even the United Nations is concerned about,” Abante said.
The Manila House leader response placed Cayetano’s remarks against the broader moral and constitutional question that has haunted the drug war: whether the state can claim to protect human rights while allowing killing without trial, evidence tested in court or lawful judgment.
“The irresponsible statement of the SP runs counter even to the Bible that he professes to believe and quote often. This only tells us that if ever Sara becomes president, she will follow in the footsteps of her father,” Abante warned.
Abante, a Baptist and long-time advocate of human rights in Congress, said the biblical language often used in public life should also be applied to the poor, the accused and the families left behind by the anti-drug campaign.
“One of the sins God hates according to Proverbs 6:17 is ‘hands that shed innocent blood,’” Abante said.
Abante acknowledged that the illegal drug trade itself destroys lives and violates human dignity, but he stressed that state violence without legal basis also falls squarely within the concern of human rights.
“I agree with SP Cayetano that those involved in the drug trade are human rights violators and a human rights concern but also those who kill without legal basis and due process. Human rights is very much concerned about the use of killing machines in the war on drugs during Duterte’s time,” Abante said.
For Abante, the standard must apply to both the social harm caused by illegal drugs and the violence committed in the name of fighting them, because constitutional accountability loses meaning when law enforcers or vigilantes are allowed to decide guilt through force.
“Both who are killed because of drugs and the guns whether they’re vigilantes or police are human rights violations. What we are after is accountability and due process,” Abante said.
