European Parliament Leads In Global Pressure For Safe, Free And Fair Elections In The Philippines

“We welcome and commend the Resolution of the European Parliament a week ago calling for international monitoring of the current Presidential Election Campaign in the Philippines, and urging other parliaments and governments to follow the lead given in this resolution,” said Mr. Peter Murphy, spokesperson for the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines today.
 

“This resolution was carried by a massive majority of Euro MPs, with 627 votes in favor, 26 against, and 31 abstentions, indicating support from almost all political tendencies. Yet, the Philippine and Indonesian governments denounced it as interference in the election process,” said Murphy.
 

Following a thorough summary of the many human rights violations documented under President Duterte, the resolution called:

“on the Philippine authorities to step up their efforts to ensure fair and free elections and a non-toxic environment for on- and offline campaigning; regrets, in this context, that the Philippine authorities have not invited the EU to conduct an election observation mission; calls on the Government of the Philippines to ensure a safe, free and fair electoral campaign and to take measures to ensure access for all to electoral resources; calls on the EU Delegation and EU Member States’ representations to support sending an international electoral mission and give their full support to independent local election observers, to regularly meet with them and to closely follow up on any incidents reported during the election campaign, including by addressing these concerns directly with the Philippine authorities.”
 

The parliament urged the European Commission to set a timeframe for the temporary removal of the General System of Preferences Plus from imports from the Philippines unless the human rights situation improved, and urged all member States to cease supplying weapons to the Philippines.
 

“ICHRP is organizing its own International Observer Mission for these important elections, following the thorough Investigate PH reporting on human rights violations in the Philippines last year,” said Murphy. “Our first bulletin will be issued on March 1.”

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