De Lima says Duterte defenders received ‘double-slap’ at UN body

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano defends the Duterte administration’s war on drugs during a press briefing in Quezon City. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

The call of several nations to either probe or end the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country was a “double-slap” on the Philippine team sent to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to defend the government’s drug war.

This, according to Senator Leila de Lima, who has been charged and detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center for alleged involvement in illegal drugs.

“It was a double-slap on the PH delegation to the UNHRC when in a vote of 45-1, the UNHRC delegates urged the Philippines to take the appropriate actions to stop the EJKs in the country,” De Lima said in a statement on Monday

“Obviously, the UNHRC completely ignored the fictional boasts of Cayetano on the human rights accomplishments of the Duterte regime,” she said, referring to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, head of the Philippine delegation.

“While most of the report embodied accomplishments of the PNoy administration, the UNHRC delegates were not about to be fooled, as they were able to distinguish between PNoy’s accomplishments and the opposite reality of summary executions that now pervades in the country,” she added. PNoy is former President Benigno Aquino III.

De Lima said the call of the UN delegates to allow UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard to investigate the EJKs in the country was the “second part of the double-slap.”

“After criticizing and cursing Callamard for appearing in the CHR (Commission on Human Rights) anniversary and attending the FLAG forum on the drug war, the government is now asked to invite back Callamard,” she said.

Malacañang has criticized Callamard for her supposed unannounced visit to the country.

De Lima said: “It’s time for Malacañang to swallow its pride and stop all the foolishness.”

“Spouting fictional numbers and condescendingly lecturing brilliant HR (human rights) defenders on the definition of EJK doesn’t work as the images of bloodied corpses on city pavements is already seared in the mind of the international community.”

“It will take Cayetano and Malacañang some time to recover from this double slap. Hopefully, the lingering pain and ringing in the ears will teach them never ever to play around with the UN human rights bodies again, and that its officials like Callamard,” she said.

But on a positive note for Malacañang, De lima said the President’s “sell-out” of the Spratlys and the West Philippine Sea to his Chinese masters had paid off, noting that China was “the lone state delegate that chose to side with its lackey, Duterte.”/ac

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