{"id":11559,"date":"2025-06-20T00:55:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T23:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=11559"},"modified":"2025-06-18T15:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T14:24:16","slug":"human-rights-groups-warn-against-marcos-jr-s-new-approach-to-police-anti-drug-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/human-rights-groups-warn-against-marcos-jr-s-new-approach-to-police-anti-drug-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Human rights groups warn against Marcos Jr.\u2019s new approach to police anti-drug policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Human rights advocates in the Philippines have raised<\/a> concerns following General Nicolas Torre III\u2019s announcement that one of his anti-drug strategies is to track the number of arrests made by police officers as part of their performance metrics.<\/p>\n

Torre made this statement shortly after taking<\/a> his post on June 2, 2025 as the new Chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), in response to questions about his directive to officers following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.\u2019s order to target small-scale drug offenders.<\/p>\n

Torre explained<\/a> that police actions will remain within the ambit of the law and will be guided by \u201cchecks and balances\u201d. However, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) noted<\/a> that rewarding officers based on the number of arrests they make could lead to abuse.<\/p>\n

CHR warned<\/a> \u00a0that in the past, such a framework has encouraged shortcuts and arbitrary actions that erode human rights. The commission also said it could weaken public trust in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) also cautioned<\/a> that framing arrests as a numbers game is deeply concerning, pointing out that this could lead to wrongful arrests, abuse of power, and systemic violations of rights targeting already marginalized communities.<\/p>\n

PAHRA noted<\/a> in a statement that \u201cwhen success is measured by the number of arrests rather than the quality and integrity of police work, it encourages shortcuts and pressure to deliver results at the expense of due process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The policy announcement comes amid a political shake-up ordered<\/a> by Marcos Jr. following disappointing midterm election results.<\/p>\n

Almost all members of Marcos Jr.\u2019s Cabinet and agency heads, including those with secretary-level ranks, submitted<\/a> their courtesy resignations on May 22, 2025, following the President\u2019s instructions. In a press statement, Marcos Jr. said<\/a> the recent election results show that the public demands more positive outcomes. He stressed<\/a> the need for the government to realign its priorities to better reflect what the people expect.<\/p>\n

Progressive lawmakers suggested<\/a> that the Cabinet reshuffle might simply be a political strategy to ease public discontent with the administration.<\/p>\n

Parliamentarians from the Makabayan bloc, Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers) and Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna), criticized<\/a> the administration\u2019s moves as superficial.\u00a0Any reshuffle will remain a mere superficial effort at image management unless Marcos Jr. addresses the root causes of poverty and inequality, including underfunded social services, widespread corruption, and political patronage, Tinio added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was also observed<\/a> that the reshuffle was more about consolidating loyalty than shifting policies, potentially targeting allies of Vice President Sara Duterte.<\/p>\n

Marcos Jr. has retained<\/a> most of his Cabinet members. Key officials, including those from the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Labor, Health, and Social Welfare, remain in place, as well as the core economic, defense, justice, and interior teams. Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will keep<\/a> his post until confirmed as UN envoy. Performance reviews for other officials are ongoing, with more changes possible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9 Raffy Lerma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human rights advocates in the Philippines have raised concerns following General Nicolas Torre III\u2019s announcement that one of his anti-drug strategies is to track the number of arrests made by police officers as part of their performance metrics. Torre made this statement shortly after taking his post on June 2, 2025 as the new Chief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,73,58,59,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-war-on-drugs-en","category-aktuelles-en","category-human-rights-news","category-internal-affairs","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11615,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11559\/revisions\/11615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}