Two opposition senators on Monday slammed the killing of activists in the Southern Tagalog region following police and military raids early Sunday, saying it only shows the Duterte administration’s high level of disrespect towards basic human rights.

Senators Leila de Lima and Risa Hontiveros said the killing of nine activists in separate places—in the province of Rizal, Batangas and Cavite—warrant the attention and condemnation of the Filipino people and the international community.

“Labor and community organizers are not combatants. This cowardly crackdown deserves only the strongest condemnation,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“There is no denying that this scale of violence, injustice and impunity is being perpetrated by this administration,” she further said.

Hontiveros said the President’s recent televised threats of red-tagging and outright murder are unbridled human rights violations that must be held to account.

“I am calling for a thorough investigation by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). We will also consider filing a bill penalizing red-tagging as a separate and distinct crime because those fighting to protect our basic rights should not be silenced,” she said.

De Lima echoed Hontiveros’ call saying it is no coincidence that two days after President Duterte ordered the security forces to “kill them all” and “ignore human rights,” six activists were arrested and nine were reportedly killed in Southern Tagalog “in just one morning.”

“Whether it’s drugs, insurgency, COVID-19 or poverty, he, indeed, governs through violence and killings. Since 2016, this regime is on a killing spree,” De Lima said in a separate statement.

“Duterte’s latest marching order is just a reiteration and a reminder of his long-standing policy of brutally eliminating perceived enemies,” she also said.

The detained senator also said it is no coincidence that the massacre happened in the provinces under the jurisdiction of the AFP Southern Luzon Command, whose head is Lt. General Antonio Parlade, Jr., who heads the administration’s brutal anti-insurgency campaign.

Parlade is head of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“He might be currently banned from red-tagging on Facebook but trust him to turn a day of rest and prayer into a bloody Sunday, ‘Tokhang style.’ At talagang nangyari pa ang mga ito habang nagaganap ang isang (And this happened while there is an ongoing) Blue Mass for Police Officers at the Manila Cathedral. Talagang nakakagalit (It’s maddening),” De Lima stressed.

“For this regime, government critics, activists and other truth-seekers can be, and are being branded as enemies of the State, making them targets of Duterte’s ‘kill, kill, kill’ policy,” she said.

“Kailangang magtuloy-tuloy ang pagkondena at paniningil (The condemnation should continue). We will not stop until these murderers are held accountable for their crimes,” the lawmaker reiterated.