Marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relationships between the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the Presidents of both countries spoke on the phone about strengthening diplomatic ties.
“Over the last six decades, we have pursued fruitful relations. We look forward to sustaining this and exploring further the full potential of our cooperative ties,” claimed the authoritarian President Duterte.
UN Resolution
During the conversation, Sri Lanka’s President, and accused war criminal, Gotabaya Rajapaksa thanked the Philippines for its cooperation and support in multilateral venues, including at the United Nations Human Rights.
In March, the Philippines voted against the UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka which mandated for Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to "collect" as well as "consolidate, analyse and preserve” evidence that could be used in future war crimes trials.
In the session, their representative lashed out at the UNHRC session claiming that the report “failed to ground itself properly on contextual realities”.
The representative maintained that Sri Lanka would pursue accountability through its domestic processes despite overwhelming doubt expressed by senior UN officials and experts.
War on Drugs
Under the previous administration, then-President Sirisena has discussed reintroducing the death penalty to “replicate the success” of President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called drug war in the Philippines. This has sparked intense criticism from over a hundred human rights organisations who stand opposed to the death penalty.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ramped up this “war on drugs” appointing the accused war criminal, Kamal Gunaratne, to the position of Defence Secretary.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet’s, has recently expressed alarm on Sri Lanka. She notes the “continuing series of deaths in police custody” in the context of alleged gangs.
Bachelet has also called for the accountability for deaths which could number over 25,000, caused by the Philippine government’s, “Double Barrel” campaign which ran from 1 July 2016 to the 31 January 2020.
