KARAPATAN is disgusted at the announcement of former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on filing an asylum application in The Netherlands, a move that can only be seen as a way of evading full accountability for his role in the proliferation of POGOs in the Philippines and the implementation of the Duterte administration’s repressive policies.
Roque’s claim that he faces political persecution in the Philippines reeks with the arrogance and conceit of someone who is drunk with power. In truth, he has been a main cheerleader of Duterte’s sham drug war and his war against political dissenters, justifying extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations.
Genuine asylum seekers are people facing violations of their rights in their home countries. Roque is more notoriously known as an opportunist accomplice of human rights violators like Duterte and thus should not be eligible for asylum in The Netherlands and anywhere else outside the Philippines. It would be laughable if anyone seriously considers Roque’s self-styling as a persecuted individual.
As we call on the Dutch government to immediately reject Roque’s application, we likewise call on the Canadian government to deny the stay of two individuals–former Philippine National Police officer Josue Limmong Ahuday and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict agent Jeffrey Celiz–in their country. Ahuday was among the implementers of Duterte’s “drug war” while Celiz is a notorious redtagger who has repeatedly endangered activists and dissenters.
These Duterte subalterns and fascists deserve to be made fully accountable for their crimes and should not be given safe haven in other countries.