The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines announced on 29 March the launching of an international campaign for Magnitsky Sanctions against 12 top human rights violators in the Philippines, dubbed the ‘Dirty Dozen’. The ICHRP aims to work with the national governments of Australia, Canada, the European Union, United Kingdom and United States to hold these 12 Manila government officials accountable for grave human rights violations.

Heading the list of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ are President Rodrigo Duterte and former Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Ronald De La Rosa, as the “main architects of the war on drugs and campaign of state terror” in the Philippines. Included in the list as “part of the command-and-control structure of the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines when rights violations by these state institutions allegedly took place” are PNP Chief Gen. Diebold Sinas, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Jose Faustino, Jr, National Security Adviser Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr, AFP Southern Luzon Command Chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr, Department of National Defense Secretary Gen. Delfin Lorenzana and Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Gen. Eduardo Año.

Completing the ‘Dirty Dozen’ are Duterte aide Sen. Bong Go, former Duterte spokesman Harry Roque, anti-communist task force spokesperson Lorraine Badoy and Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert. ICHRP said they are “part of the infrastructure of terror in the Duterte administration and participated in the public orchestration of alleged state repression.”

ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy said the Magnitsky sanctions campaign is a direct follow up to their investigation work in 2021 “which identified patterns of gross and systematic human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, perpetrated by the Duterte regime.”

Magnitsky legislations call for sanctions against any foreign national responsible for violations of internationally recognized human rights in a foreign country when authorities in that country are unable or unwilling to conduct a thorough, independent and objective investigation of the violations. The law provides for the taking of restrictive measures, such as targeted financial sanctions and travel bans, in respect of foreign nationals responsible for gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

In a related development, the Philippine human rights alliance KARAPATAN submitted on 31 March a report for the upcoming 41st Session of the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council. KARAPATAN renewed it calls for the UNHRC to conduct an “international independent investigation on the human rights crisis” in the Philippines.

KARAPATAN lamented that “majority, if not all, the recommendations” of the UNHRC and the UN Special Procedures made since the third cycle of the UPR in 2017 “remain unheeded” by the Manila government.