I can’t say I was surprised when I read over the weekend that President Donald Trump had invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte – who has advocated extrajudicial killings of drug users in his home country – to the White House.
But I was deeply disturbed.
Duterte has joked about rape and claimed that as president he would kill as many drug addicts as Hitler killed Jews. “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now, there is 3 million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” he said in September. Hitler killed 6 million Jews, by the way, not 3 million.
Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte. Wikimedia Commons
As unpleasant as it was to see that photo of Kid Rock, Sarah Palin, and Ted Nugent in the White House (and to learn that Trump spent four hours of his Wednesday with them), having a man like Duterte visit the White House will actually bring America’s credibility to a new low.
In the New York Times story about the invitation, the paper quotes Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch John Sifton as saying, “By essentially endorsing Duterte’s murderous war on drugs, Trump is now morally complicit in future killings. Although the traits of his personality likely make it impossible, Trump should be ashamed of himself.” No argument here.
Below is a list of five Philippine leaders fighting for just causes who truly deserve a presidential welcome.
Leila de Lima
In December, Time Magazine did a profile on de Lima, a sitting Senator in the Philippines. She called the people encouraged by Duterte to carry out extrajudicial killings as the president’s “death squads.” At that time, nearly 6,000 people had died in that country’s war on drugs – an extrajudicial campaign to wipe the Philippines clean of all addicts and dealers. A vocal critic of Duterte, de Lima was arrested in February on drug trafficking charges. Many believe those charges to be politically motivated. The European Parliament passed a resolution in March calling for her immediate release. Nevertheless, she remains in jail and describes herself as a political prisoner.
“Chito” Gascon
Chairman of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, Jose Luis Martin Gascon is one of the people charged with policing the police. Yet, the Commission on Human Rights has little power when compared to Duterte’s presidential palace. The commission can’t prosecute or send people to jail, but makes recommendations to relevant authorities. His hope, as he told an Esquire reporter for a recent profile, is to “fight each battle, work on each case, and ultimately find justice once,” which would hopefully lead to a second, third and so forth. Gascon has long been an activist, and was a student leader who protested against Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled as a dictator and attempted to retain the Presidency through voter fraud in the mid-80s. Gascon was the youngest member of the 1986 commission that drafted the country’s 1987 Constitution.
Loren Legarda
Philippines Senator Lorna Regina Bautista Legarda is an environmentalist who was declared by the United Nations as a UN Global Champion for Resilience in 2015. In a speech delivered at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, Legarda was cited as an outspoken and consistent champion for the need to rethink development and reduce risk. She was also recognized for advancing disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation through legislation and advocacy at all levels.
Ninotchka Rosca
Author of two books, State of War and Twice Blessed, Ninotchka Rosca’s writing was described by the Los Angeles Times as evoking a “beautiful, impoverished, passionate country… in the hands of immoral sociopaths.” In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, Rosca urged the United States to allow nongovernment agencies, international human- and women’s-rights groups and the Philippines own cause-oriented organizations to lead the way through Duterte’s rule. “Their battles will undoubtedly be uphill; but for them, what battle hasn’t been? It has been largely through their efforts that governance has advanced, by fits and starts, from 20th century feudalism toward a semblance of modernity.”
Kesz Valdez
It’s not every 18-year-old who can say they have shaken hands with Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu while receiving a $130,000 children’s peace prize. But Kesz Valdez did it. At the age of seven, Valdez founded a charity called Championing Community children, which raises funds for necessities for street kids in Cavite City in the Philippines. Those include sandals, clothes, candy, and toys, which all go to poor children living in the slums around Manila.
