MANILA — Since taking office just over three years ago, President Rodrigo Duterte has not only overseen a murderous campaign on drug users and sellers. He has also unleashed a brazen assault on the country’s democratic institutions — at times, using his so-called war on drugs as a pretense for going after his political adversaries and dissenters. But the only crime I committed was to use my platform as a senator to oppose the brutality of this administration’s campaign against drugs. Mr. Duterte’s government has orchestrated the removal of a Supreme Court chief justice and harassed and sidelined Vice President Leni Robredo (she belongs to a different party). Independent media houses have been bullied with bogus criminal charges; one was effectively pressured into being sold to Duterte allies.

Source: New York Times July 22, 2019 04:52 UTC