A human rights activist actively campaigning against the President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war against drugs was killed today, August 10, while on his way to Lapu-Lapu City.
Butch Rosales, 42, was an active member of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, or Rise Up, a network of volunteers and rights defenders against drug-related extrajudicial killings and violations.
“With the rising number of killings conducted with impunity in Cebu, Rosales was killed in the same manner that suspected drug users have been killed in the conduct of the Duterte regime’s drug war. This case reveals the brazenness of perpetrators – a result of the assurances given by the regime to these killers and the prevailing impunity that lingers after the killings,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.
President Duterte’s war against drugs, dubbed as Oplan Tokhang, has resulted to the extrajudicial killing of thousands of poor Filipinos accused of either using or peddling illegal drugs.
According to Palabay, Rosales was riding a multicab jeepney, sitting beside the driver, when the gunman, who sat at behind him, shot the activist several times in his head.
She said, “the Duterte regime is making it legal to violate and bypass people’s civil and political rights. Whether it be in the war on drugs or in counterinsurgency operations, gross rights violations continue unabated.”
(Photo grabbed from Cristina Palabay’s Facebook account)
