The hard-line president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has reacted with characteristic fury at the European Parliament’s decision to adopt an urgency resolution of the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the country, embodied by the arrest of government critic Senator Leila de Lima of the Liberal Party of the Philippines (LP – LI full member).

Acting in close collaboration with Liberal International, LI president of Honour, Hans van Baalen MEP, took the initiative on behalf of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament (LI full member) and tabled the resolution, which won the support of parties across the political spectrum.

In addition to calling for close monitoring of the case against Senator De Lima, the resolution urges “the EU to support the establishment at the UN Human Rights Council of an independent international investigation into unlawful killings and other violations by the Philippines in the context of President Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’”.

Forced to react to an intervention prompted by Liberal International for the second time in one month, President Duterte’s frustration was palpable. In an expletive-laden address to the media over the resolution, which denounces his so-called ‘war on drugs’ and reintroduction of the death penalty, the draconian president of the Philippines insisted that the European parliamentarians “mind your own business”, before adding “why do you have to fuck with us, goddamn it?”

Liberal International spoke out and rallied support for enhanced scrutiny of human rights standards under president Duterte the day that senator De Lima was arrested. The Liberal legislator remains imprisoned and has repeatedly stated that she is willing to be the first political prisoner of the Duterte regime.