The European parliament has condemned the Philippines for arresting President Rodrigo Duterte’s highest-profile critic, a senator who has led the charge against the strongman’s bloody drugs war.

A resolution delivered by European Union lawmakers said they had serious concerns that the charges against Senator Leila de Lima, who was arrested last month, “are almost entirely fabricated”.



De Lima has been the most outspoken politician against Duterte, vowing to keep fighting the “sociopathic serial killer” even as she was arrested by armed police.

She has condemned the drugs war, which has seen more than 7,000 people killed in nine months, but also spent a decade investigating Duterte’s alleged role as the leader of “death squads” during his time as mayor of southern Davao city.

Duterte has hit back at De Lima with allegations of running a drug trafficking ring inside the nation’s biggest prison when she was the justice secretary under the previous administration of Benigno Aquino. She denies all charges.

The EU text said De Lima was a human rights advocate who could face a sentence from 12 years up to life in prison and be expelled from the senate if convicted.

It raised concerns for her safety in prison. “There are numerous claims of torture in places of detention that are not giving rise to inquiries … Senator De Lima was exposed to a torrent of harassment and intimidation from the authorities,” it said.

Responding to the resolution, Philippine presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella denied the charges were politically motivated.

“You know, they seem to have a misunderstanding of what’s happening to De Lima. The lady is being charged with crime, not political persuasions, so I think they ought to respect that,” Abella was quoted by local outlet Rappler as saying.

The EU text also referenced Duterte’s open threats to kill human rights defenders and said the government should prioritise combatting trafficking networks and drug barons “over tracking down small-scale consumers”.

Many of the extrajudicial killings by police have targeted alleged drug users and low-level dealers, human rights groups and journalists have found. Police strongly deny that.

The EU also expressed “grave concern over credible reports to the effect that the Philippine police force is falsifying evidence to justify extrajudicial killings, and that overwhelmingly the urban poor are those being targeted”.

The resolution said the EU should help establish an independent international investigation into unlawful killings and other violations by the Philippines in the war on drugs. Although Duterte has halted police operations, he has asked the army to continue the crackdown on crime.

Duterte is also under mounting international pressure following moves by his government to reinstate the death penalty and lower the age of criminal responsibility to nine years old.

On Thursday, two United Nations special rapporteurs called on the government to reject lawmakers’ moves to bring back state executions.

The experts warned that reinstatement “will set the Philippines starkly against the global trend towards abolition and would entail a violation of the country’s obligations under international law”.

It added that there was a lack of any persuasive evidence that the death penalty contributes more than any other punishment to reducing criminality or drug-trafficking.

More than two-thirds of all countries in the world have abolished the death penalty. The Philippines was one of the first countries in southeast Asia to ban executions.