Duterte administration rejects plea for independent probe of PH killings

Salvador Panelo

MANILA, Philippines—The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday (June 10) rejected appeals, one of them coming from Vice President Leni Robredo, for the government to allow the United Nations (UN)  to send over an independent team to investigate allegations of summary killings of drug suspects and state-sanctioned attacks on human rights defenders.

Salvador Panelo, presidential spokesperson and chief legal counsel, said the rare joint statement of 11 UN special rapporteurs and other UN human rights investigators was just a repeat of “the same false narratives against this government.”

The statement expressed alarm at what it said were unabated killings in Duterte’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs and attacks on human rights workers being committed with alleged impunity.

“Their basis on the war on drugs, on violation of human rights, all came from the opposition and the detractors of the President, which have not been proven,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

Robredo, in her radio show on Sunday (June 9), said the Duterte administration should welcome the independent investigation if it had nothing to hide.

But Panelo said the claims made by the 11 UN rights experts who signed the statement were all lies, including what the statement said was the continued killings of drug suspects in vigilante-style street executions or questionable police operations. The government has acknowledged up to 7,000 deaths in Duterte’s drug war but human rights groups, including the New York-based Human Righs Watch said the figure could be as high as 20,000.

Panelo said accusations of human rights abuse against Duterte had been recycled.

“Those issues were specifically raised during the election campaign and the electorate repudiated these overwhelmingly,” he said, pointing to results of the May elections for senator which showed a shutout of the opposition.

“And so these rapporteurs should realize by now  that the issues they have been raising were not true,” he added.

Panelo slammed the UN for concluding that the human rights situation in the Philippines had worsened even before an investigation had been conducted, which Duterte repeatedly said he would not allow, however.

“Moreover, how can you be asking for an investigation when you’ve already concluded that this country has violated certain human rights and has killed many people? So what’s the use of investigating if you already have a conclusion?” he said. (Editor: Tony Bergonia)