Fighting for Freedom is Borderless - Democratic Alliance
The challenges to democracy have become explicit not only in South Africa but also in other countries like the Philippines. While the Democratic Alliance has its own battle - making Jacob Zuma’s government accountable to massive corruption and exhaustive lies, the DA cannot ignore any affront to democracy wherever it may take place.
Corruption is not limited to unscrupulous dealings using government funds. It is also about manipulating institutions and rules of procedure, which the Duterte administration in the Philippines has employed.
Its war on drugs has claimed more than 6,000 lives since July 2016, more than the number of deaths during the Martial Law period in the Philippines that lasted 11 years. Extrajudicial killings are an everyday occurrence, which the state condones. Critics of the administration are silenced, as in the case of Duterte’s staunchest opponent Senator Leila de Lima who was put in jail.
The government is also campaigning for the reimposition of capital punishment, permitting death by hanging, firing squad, and lethal injection for drug-related crimes.
South Africa and the Philippines are continents apart, but are similarly experiencing corruption. This is why the DA cannot simply look away at the Philippine problem because it knows how corruption holds hostage an entire country, how it deprives the next generation of a better future.
Corruption costs people their freedom – to improve their lives, to speak openly, to live decently.
DA supports its sister party, the Liberal Party of the Philippines in its unceasing efforts to call the government to account to corruption and extrajudicial killings. The DA stands by LP in its constructive yet firm dissent on issues that affront freedom and democracy. The DA’s commitment to freedom is borderless.