Malacañang on Monday rejected the call to allow the United Nations special rapporteurs to conduct an independent investigation on alleged summary killings of drug suspects in the country, as it accused UN human rights body of making a conclusion although they have not been in the Philippines.
“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?” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Panelo, also the President’s chief legal counsel, issued the statement after Vice President Leni Robredo, along with other groups, said that the Duterte government should welcome the inquiry if it is not hiding something.
Robredo herself said the UN experts should be allowed to do their jobs.
But Panelo dismissed the call for international probe as an “intellectually challenged” move and an “outrageous interference” in Philippine policies.
The Palace spokesman said the statement of 11 UN special rapporteurs and other UN human rights investigators were just a repeat of “the same false narratives against this government,” and described them as “foreign propagandists masquerading as human rights protectors,” who based their accusations on false and adulterated information.
“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.
The human right group said more than 7,000 suspected drug users and dealers were killed since the war on drugs started in 2016.
However, Panelo described the accusations of human rights abuse against Duterte as recycled.
The Palace official said that those issues were specifically raised during the election campaign and the electorate repudiated these overwhelmingly.
He also criticized 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.
