Samar city nearly lost turn to host un event

TACLOBAN CITY—President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs nearly cost the city of Catbalogan, Samar province, its turn to host an international gathering on the environment.

But Catbalogan Mayor Stephany Tan said she was able to persuade the event organizers to let her city proceed with hosting this year’s conference of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Asia-Pacific.

UCLG is an international organization of local governments recognized by the United Nations (UN) and with headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Last year’s gathering of the group was held in the city of Jeollabuk-do in South Korea.

“You know, most of the members belong to the United Nations and they are really so concerned about human rights issues and they really quizzed me on these issues,” Tan said.

Mr. Duterte’s brutal campaign against drugs has caught the attention of human rights groups and international organizations, like the UN, which criticized the campaign for leading to hundreds of street killings of drug suspects.

Since the start of the war on drugs last July, at least 7,000 suspected pushers and users, all from urban poor communities, have been killed.

Human rights groups said the killings were extrajudicial, but the Philippine National Police refused to use the term extrajudicial and referred to the street executions as “deaths under investigation.”

Mayor Tan said she was able to “convince” officials of UCLG that the war on drugs is acceptable “in the point of view of most Filipinos.”

“I told them that there was a big difference now after the campaign was started under the administration of President Duterte,” Tan said.

The international gathering is set April 4 to 7 and would be attended by delegates from 19 countries in Asia-Pacific.