Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the protection of human rights in the Philippines.

The UK is fully committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, and reports of human rights abuses in the Philippines remain troubling. We are concerned by the high death toll associated with the 'war on drugs', the situation of land rights and human rights defenders, developments on media freedom, and moves to reintroduce the death penalty.

Our Embassy in Manila has made these concerns clear with senior officials and government figures and it is in regular contact with human rights groups and relevant UN bodies on a range of human rights issues. We also work closely with the wider international community, including our EU partners, to press for investigations into instances of abuse and to encourage the protection of human rights defenders.

I raised these issues with a number of Philippine Ministers during my trip to Manila in August 2018 and with the Philippine Ambassador in April 2018. In the UK item 2 statement at the UN Human Rights Council on 11 September 2018, we urged the Philippines to investigate killings associated with the "war on drugs" and to ensure the safety of Land Rights defenders.