Panelo hits back at Amnesty Int’l: Don’t parrot bogus drug war info

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo on Wednesday urged Amnesty International to stop peddling “bogus information” on the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

In a statement, Panelo hit the London-based group for insisting that the drug war has claimed the lives of 27,000 drug personalities.

The Palace official was reacting to Butch Olano, Amnesty Philippines section director, who asked him to do his homework first by reading the group’s report on the drug war before making any statement.

Olano said the figures cited in the report came from the government itself, particularly the Philippine National Police (PNP).

READ: Amnesty International to Panelo: Do your homework

Claiming that he had “surely done his homework,” Panelo said the group’s drug war death toll of 27,000 is “one big lie” and is a part of the false narrative against the anti-narcotics campaign supposedly peddled by the President’s critics.

“This is one big lie and part of the false advocacies widely peddled by the President’s critics and detractors, considering that those who have been neutralized in the anti-illegal drug campaign are less than a fifth of this bloated figure,” Panelo said.

He then pointed to opposition candidates in the recently concluded midterm elections as the ones who “foisted the lie” but were “mercilessly repudiated by the electorate in the polls.”

“Their mask of righteousness has been ripped apart,” he said.

“Amnesty International can not parrot the bogus information it gets from the anti-Duterte forces and gets away with it. It can not recklessly throw accusations without them showing credible proof of their authenticity,” Panelo stressed.

The Palace official further asked the human rights group to “cite facts and figures on the names of the alleged 27,000 extrajudicial deaths.”

“Otherwise, their failure will only validate the grotesque falsity of their claim and lace it with condemnable malice,” he said. /ee