Philippine Sex Workers Collective call for Solidarity with Drug Users

The Philippine Sex Workers Collective is speaking out against human rights violations against sex workers and drug users. In a statement on their website published on 27 October, the collective explains how oppression against drug users is similar to oppression against sex workers and it is important to stand in solidarity with anyone whose rights are violated.

“We cannot let the system continue to have its way. We must continue to fight back,” urged Philippine sex workers, who say they will draw strength from their own experiences of oppression to demand human rights are not withheld from anyone in society.

After campaigning on a platform promising to crackdown on crime, drugs and corruption in government, the newly elected President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duturte was sworn into office in May. He was quick to act, calling for the extrajudicial killing of people who use and/or deal drugs in his victory speech on election night. In the months that have followed, he has repeatedly urged extrajudicial killings and condoned the murder of people who use drugs. Between July and September it is estimated over 2500 people have been killed in the war on drugs in the Philippines.

Given this climate of state sanctioned violence and extrajudicial killing, thousands of people have surrendered to authorities as an act of self-preservation. According to reports obtained by Al Jazeera, more than 686,000 people "surrendered voluntarily" to police between July and September. This is in addition to the 15,055 individuals arrested during this period under suspicion for drug related offences by police.  Prisons are now facing severe overcrowding, holding many times the number of people they were built for.

Salvador Capilin told the Daily Beast “'now we have 7,500 people in a jail meant for 800,’ He went on to explain, ‘People are apprehended without due process of law, and the police recommend no bail. Why? Because the president is telling them to apprehend all pushers. Prosecutors will go along—if you let them [dealers] out you’re ‘part of the problem.’ Judges will convict everyone, since they’re afraid too—because many judges are involved.’”

The violence against people who use drugs has many negative impacts. Not only in the loss of lives or mass incarceration, but in access to health care and harm reduction services. Reuters has reported how needle and syringe exchanges are facing pressure to close.  Between 2009-2015 the government enabled research projects to legally distribute clean needles, but these services were officially stopped after pressure from anti-drugs groups and politicians.

Since then, HIV healthcare organisations and services have reported being watched by the government and advised to stop distributing needles. The climate of fear and the enormity of the risk faced by people accessing and running such services under the Duturte regime have contributed to an even more hostile environment for HIV prevention.

The Philippines Collective of Sex Workers have noted the importance of speaking up on all forms of human rights abuses, whether committed to them as sex workers, or committed to others. “There is no such thing as it is done to them not us,” the collective wrote in their statement,  “when the rights of other are violated so are our rights. We may not see nor feel that outright but whether we like it or not such violations would find its way into our doors.”

Political leaders and society often scapegoat certain communities, and seek to treat certain people as somehow less than human or immoral. The Philippines Collective of Sex Workers fights this. In urging people stand up for the human rights of everyone, the collective explains, “we must show them [those who deny human rights] that we understand better what being moral and being human is all about.”