 On to our second speaker. I'm delighted to introduce Christine Montenegro Mendoza from the Philippines. Christine is a human rights activist. She is a consultant in the Senate of the Philippines and has worked for the enactment of a new HIV and AIDS Policy Act of 2018. A human rights centered and evidence based legislation in the Philippines which has shifted the policy and response to cater to key affected populations and opened up spaces for harm reduction in the country. She's a founding member of Street Law Philippines, an organization of lawyers which provides access to justice for services for people who use drugs in the Philippines. Christine, you have the floor. Bwam diya? It was so good to be out of Manila for a while. Thank you so much for having me. So the thirdest war on drugs is supposed to be just a three to six months campaign. The promise was to eradicate crime, improve peace and order and finish the reign of the oligarchs by the rise into power of a supposedly common Filipino who came all the way from impoverished and underrepresented Mendozao south of the most disdained Imperial Manila. Almost three years later, the war on drugs has unraveled into anything but a war against illegal substances. It has become a platform for a populist dictator when span of only 33 months was able to undermine democratic institutions our leaders thought we built over the last 30 years. Here's how I've been doing it. He then, by issuing a police memorandum circular and a dangerous drugs board regulation which allowed police officers to knock on every door of suspected drug offender to quote-in-unquote ask them to quote-in-unquote voluntarily surrender. He then asked the local government units, particularly the village chiefs to come up with a list of known drug offenders and even commanded people to submit names through a drop box which the police will use as targets for their operations. Then he ordered the Department of Education, the Commission of Civil Service, Department of Labor, all other government agencies to conduct drug tests of students as young as high school and employees with a threat of insubordination and termination for non-compliance. His allies in the legislative, they were able to institute regressive drug policies, they were in statement of death penalty for drug offences, lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old, police subpoena, construction of compulsory rehabilitation centers. Then the Philippine anti-drug strategy was issued with the obsolete objective and problematic approach of demand reduction by eradicating drug use and supply reduction by launching intense police operations, all towards the goal of a drug-free Philippines by 2022. It will ask drug users in Manila what does drug-free Philippines mean. They thought they're going to get free drugs, that's free drugs in 2022. So what was supposedly a three to six months campaign was extended to two years, three years and became a long term institutionalized, well-funded pseudo war which centralized all governmental powers to one strong man who through effective social control was able to damage our democratic principles such as checks and balances, accountability and transparency, the civilian nature of our police force, the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and respect for human rights. And this democratic reversal did not come without a price. 81,919 drug operations, 170,000 people were arrested, 5,176 were killed during police operations, at least 29,000 as of February 2019. Homicide cases under investigation and 1.3 million drug users to quote and unquote voluntarily surrender. As of February 2019, 29,000 spectra drug offenders were killed and an average of 33 a day. The police already admitted 5,176 who died during their operations by their own hands. The rest they call homicides cases under investigations, HCUIs. They were formerly known as DUIs or deaths under investigation. Same deaths, they wouldn't give their proper term EJK. Academic institutions already profiled the victims. They're more or less in their 30s, breadwinner, working as pedicab driver or construction worker. Most of them are meth users, most of them live in the slums of Manila, a high school graduate who couldn't afford a college education, not seen a doctor or a lawyer in his lifetime, much less afforded services. Of the 29,000 deaths, 5,000 killed by the police, 24,000 still to be investigated, because if the police are the suspects, would we expect them to just investigate? After almost three years and 29,000 deaths, so far we only got one conviction. This is Kian de Los Santos, his 17-year-old high school student. He was suspected as a drug runner, was gunned down a few blocks away from his home. His last words were reportedly him begging the police to let him go because he has exams the next day. One conviction and it was all because of a CCTV footage which showed police officers dragging him into a dark alley where he was found dead later. Police said the boy fought back. A 17-year-old against three grown police officers. They were convicted. The turtle had to invite the boys' parents to the palace. The operations were suspended for a while. A brewing resistance became felt. Activists went to the streets. Church bells began tolling at 8 p.m. Hashtag stopped the killings, became the national call. And because the resistance became felt, the government had to retaliate. Senator de Lima, who wanted to investigate the killings, has been in jail for 794 days today. Senator Antivero, so-called for a public health approach to drug use, was stripped of her committee chairwomenship and was charged with kidnapping and wiretapping. Chief Justice Sereno has been a dissenting voice in the judiciary of Southside. Maria Ressa, a journalist. Time magazine's person of the year, founder of Rappler, consistently exposing the abuses of the drug war was charged with 11 cases ranging from cyber-level to tax evasion. Bishop David, and other priests who have been speaking against the killings are berated by the president on an almost daily basis on national TV. Other opposition leaders, local officials are linked to the narcolists, media practitioners, critics, all suspected of being connected to an alleged ouster plot. Activists are tagged as communists, lawyers killed. Indeed, it is almost helpful to remind ourselves of what Walter said. It is a dangerous thing to be right when the government is wrong. Since span of almost 30 negotiating months since the launch of this drug war, the territory was able to spur a human rights crisis upon precedented magnitude in Philippine history on the basis and the singularity of its narratives. The drug users are not humans. They are not entitled to human rights. All those protecting them are either drug lords or drug codlers. They are all enemies of the state. While six out of seven Filipinos are reported to worry about extrajudicial killings, it is possible to think why the war on drugs remain to be popular. But it is still popular. 78% of Filipinos are satisfied with the war on drugs. It remains to be the dominant narrative. The territory even promised that its last three years in office is going to be as chilling as ever. He even increased the target from 3 million to 7 to 8 million Filipino drug users. He even brought in the main architect of his drug war, the former chief of police, Batode La Rosa, to run in the midterm elections this May. It is now number four in the survey and if the midterm elections are a referendum of this undy drugs campaign, it seems that majority of Filipinos approve of it so much that they're even willing to hand over this Berdugo a seat in the Senate. It seems that we'll all be losing the independence of the last frontier of our democracy. It's also been a year since the withdrawal from the ICC was submitted and it has now taken effect. Although this will not excuse liability for crimes against humanity committed during our membership, investigation has yet to start. The killing still continues. It has spread out in the countryside. Again, that's still 33 deaths a day. To the next three years, we'll probably remain to be a grim bleak and definitely do not spark joy. There remain small few but growing forces of resistance. These groups have been underground, have been doing underground human rights work amid threats to their security. Faith-based groups, which provide spaces for people who use drugs, EJK victims and their families. Artist groups that continue to challenge the narrative of the drug war through films, performance art, poems and visual art. Photojournalists such as the Nightcrawlers. In fact, the speaker today supposedly Rafi Lerma, unfortunately had his visa denied. He had been at the site of the killing since the war started and has kept on documenting and sharing the stories of the victims. The acadim, which spearheaded Drug Archives PH, that's Atinaeo, the Manila University, University of the Philippines, De La Salle University and Columbia University School of Journalism. They got this database of all the info related to the war that's Drug Archive PH. And civil society organisations like No Box Philippines, which has been doing pioneer work and harm reduction research and training in the Philippines. Local government officials who, in the exercise of their local autonomy, are brave enough to do community-based harm reduction programs that have been saving lives of those in the drug list. Groups of lawyers who have been challenging the constitutionality of the police memorandum working with communities and documenting the EJK cases and providing access to justice services and legal assistance to people who use drugs. This war actually gave birth to Street Law Philippines, a group of lawyers who saw the need to protect the rights of Filipino drug users. We educate them of their rights, we train them to be paralegos, and we will be starting to provide direct legal services for strategic litigation that will hopefully open spaces for drug policy reform. This is during one of our paralegal trainings, and this is with Gadi Euston, Street Law, Denmark, our mentor Nana is here. And of course, a glimmer of hope, our source of inspiration, an organization of people who inject drugs in Cebu City, which is set up a drop in center and conducts outreach under an HIV program. The director, Panky Nadella, is supposed to be here in this conference, but his visa was not granted also. So with the new HIV and AIDS Policy Act of 2018, we hope that their harm reduction work will be protected and supported by the Department of Health. The war on drugs in the Philippines has not only cost the loss of thousands of lives, but has also cost the demise of our democratic ethos. In 1986, we ousted the former dictator, President Marcos, to People Power Revolution, who started a wave of democratisation. 33 years later, we elected a new dictator who is now leading a trend of democratic reversals in neighboring countries, launching their own violent campaigns against drug offenders to tear to stone. As human rights activists pick up the pieces and continue to push back, we can only remain hopeful that international pressure will keep on pouring, that the movement continues to struggle, and that we remain angry. Realising that the best way to protect our rights is to exercise them, especially what's left of it. As of now, there's nothing left to do, but to continue with our work, and in Thomas Paine's words, to rage, rage against the dying of the light. Mabrigada, thank you. Maraming salama. The quick announcement, stop the killings, has been travelling, it has been to Manila, various states in the US, in Colombia, actually, and the banner is coming to Porto. We are inviting you all to a mass action by disbuilding on May 1, that's Wednesday after plenary. See you all there. Thank you.