HR chief Gascon, shabu gustong gawing legal (Gaya ni Leni at matapos maging bisita si Callamard)

SUPORTADO ni Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairman Chito Gascon ang panukala ni Vice President Leni Robredo na gawing legal ang paggamit ng illegal drugs upang lumuwag ang mga bilangguan gaya sa mga bansa sa Europa.

Kombinsido si Gascon na dapat baguhin ang pagtingin ng goyerno sa problema sa illegal drugs, hindi aniya patas na itambak sa kulungan ang drug addicts para panagutin sa ginawang krimen, kaila-ngan aniya ng “harm-reduction approach” gaya ng kontrobersiyal na hirit ni Robredo na decriminali-zation sa illegal drugs use.

“The first steps to acknowledge that it just can’t be law and order, it should be a strong-arm approach, there’s part of that when people commit crime, they cause harm to others, then you need to, of course, hold them to account, but holding them to account means bringing them through the justice system, arresting them, charging them, presenting them to court, and ultimately, sending them to jail if they deserve to go to jail. It’s not the killings that has happening, the numbers growing. If it’s not a just approach, then there should be other approaches having public help, harm-reduction approaches. It was a little bit controversial, the Vice President was being attacked about it, about this whole thing called decriminalization issue,” paliwanag niya sa Programang Education Radio sa DZRJ kamakalawa.

Katuwiran ni Gascon, ang mga bansa sa Europa gaya ng Portugal, The Netherlands, at Norway ay bakante ang mga kulu-ngan dahil legal gumamit ng droga sa mga nasabing bansa habang sa Filipinas ay siksikan ang mga kulungan dahil 60% ng mga kaso ng mga detenido ay drug-related cases.

Matatandaan, tinawanan lang ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang panukalang decriminalization ng illegal drugs use, ni Robredo.

Tila nagsintir pa si Gascon na hindi siya inanyayahan sa #RealNumbers Forum kamakailan na tinalakay ng pulisya, militar, at iba pang ahensiya ng pamahalaan ang tunay na sitwasyon sa kampanya ng administrasyong Duterte kontra illegal drugs, at ang totoong bilang ng mga napaslang sa drug war ay mahigit 2,000 lang kompara sa mga ulat na mahigit 9,000 katao ang napatay ng mga awtoridad.

“I think, earlier this week, they came out with the event or a conference, called “Real Numbers” and since I wasn’t invited, I wasn’t able to go. We were very interested in the results in the event. There were 9000+ homicides, not all of them are drug-rela-ted. That’s where we are. The numbers that no one can question, the numbers are rising, it’s just that there is a different perspective about where should we categorize as drug-related or not. So, there was an acceptance, there’s over 2500 that have been killed by the police in the course of their law enforcement, operations, and of course, and argument nila is nanlaban, it was justified, and then the rest are homicides, vigilante groups, maybe gang-related, etc. And again, they’re saying that not all of it is drug-related because we do have high homicide rate,” sabi ni Gascon.

Naniniwala si Gascon, ang pagbisita ni UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard ay magigiging malaking tulong sa pagresolba sa human rights issues kaugnay sa drug war.

Nitong Biyernes, kahit hindi nag-abiso sa Palasyo ay nagtungo si Callamard sa 30th anniversary ng CHR  bilang tagapagsalita at kahit wala pang nakausap na awtoridad ay binatikos nang todo ang aniya’y extrajudicial killings sa bansa bunsod ng drug war.

Ayon sa Palasyo, walang basehan ang mga pahayag ni Callamard at biased dahil wala pang ginagawang imbestigasyon ay may konklusyon na.

(ROSE NOVENARIO)