Pres. Duterte on Robredo's statement on welcoming UN rights probe, 'They keep on repeating the same false narratives against this government'

Pres. Duterte and VP Robredo photo from google (ctto)

Manila, Philippines – Malacanang Palace dismissed Vice President Robredo’s statement last Sunday on the issue that the government should welcome the call of UN human rights experts for an independent probe on the rights situation in the country if the administration had nothing to hide on the alleged human rights violations in the country’s war on drugs.

“If it’s true that there are no human rights violations in our country, why should we oppose the investigation?” the Vice President said on her weekly radio show.

There has been a recent call for an independent inquiry from eleven independent experts, including UN Special Rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, on the United Nations to conduct an independent probe on the country, saying they have recorded a “staggering number of unlawful deaths and police killings” under the war on drugs launched by the Duterte administration in 2016.

The experts also stressed that “very few independent and effective investigations” on the killings and rights violations had taken place since then.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the allegations of human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings has been used eversince by President Rodrigo Duterte’s hot blooded critics and detractors.

“Yung basis nila on war on drugs on violation of human rights eh galing lahat sa opposition, at saka sa mga detractors ni Presidente na hindi naman napatunayan. They keep on repeating the same false narratives against this government,” according to Panelo

“Moreover, as I said, those issues were specifically raised during the election campaign and the electorate repudiated overwhelmingly and so this rapporteurs should realize by now that yung mga issue na niri-raise nila hindi totoo. Ang nangyayari sinisiraan lang nila ang mga bansa na binabanggit nila,” he added. 

Malacañang has also dismissed the call, calling it “intellectually challenged” and an “outrageous interference [in] Philippine sovereignty.”

Robredo said, however, that rejecting the call only added doubt to the government’s human rights record.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), for its part, has accused the UN human rights experts of undermining the country’s sovereignty and the credibility of multilateral dialogue.

Panelo said that inquiries would be useless because the UN rights experts have already drawn conclusions even before the investigation started.

Source: Politiko