AFTER Washington expressed “deep concern” about reports of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday shot back and unreeled the continued spate of killings against black people in the United States, saying he would send a “rapporteur” to ensure it is as well abiding by human rights norms.
“The Philippine government is still worried about what is being done to the black people there in America—being shot even
while lying down. So I’m going to send my rapporteur also and investigate them,” Duterte said in a chance interview at Malacañang on Tuesday.
“Why are the blacks being killed based on trump up charges and everything. There’s hatred there by their government. So I also want my rapporteur to tell me what have you done to the poor, black people being shot [while] defenseless,” he added.
On Tuesday, the US State Department said it was “deeply concerned” about the reports of extrajudicial killings in the country and urged the Duterte government to ensure that law-enforcement authorities abided by human rights norms.
The drug trafficking crackdown and some strongly worded criticisms Duterte has made against the United States since coming to power present a dilemma for Washington, which has been seeking to forge unity among allies and partners in Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China, especially in the strategic South China Sea.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, who described the President as “a plain-speaking politician,” criticized the anti-illegal drug crackdown allegedly perpetrated by the country’s police force.
“We continue to make clear to the Philippines government … our concern about human rights, extrajudicial killings, but we are also committed to our bilateral relationship and strengthening that bilateral relationship,” he told a regular press briefing in Washington.
Toner said there was no question of the United States turning a blind eye to rights abuses and that the relationship with Manila, while good, was “frank and candid.”
The number of suspected drug traffickers killed in Duterte’s war on drugs had been put at about 900 by Philippine officials. But this number included people who died since Duterte won the May 9 presidential election.
In the same interview, Duterte decried the apparent sensitivity of other countries, many human rights groups and international organizations to the string of drug-related killings in the country when they have more problems than the Philippines—in an apparent reference to UN Special Rapporteur Angela Callamard, whom he urged to visit the country to investigate the drug-related killings.
“Why are we singled out? There are many incidents also in America. How many blacks there were killed?” Duterte said.
“Bakit siya (Callamard) mag-derecho? …commission lang iyan under the UN, mag-derecho siya sa akin? [Why should she go directly to me, that is just a commission under the UN],” he said.
Duterte added: “Just because you (Callamard) are white and just because you are there does not give you any superiority at all. And to form your own paradigm of what countries should be investigated, what countries should be not investigated. She’s rude, tell her.
“Do not do that because you are addressing me as president and you’re pointing to the police structure. This is a government.
“She should get authority from someone above her. She’s just a commission under the United Nations. So there has to be a superior who will write a letter. Tell her to respect others before she says anything about genocide.”
If UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon would write him a letter, Duterte said he would tell him he has done nothing.
“If Ban Ki would write to me, I would say that he has done nothing. He failed to end the war because until now, people are being massacred by the thousands, by the hundreds. You cannot end the war in Turkey and in Syria … so it’s a one, useless, inutile body,” Duterte said.
On Sunday, the President made grave threats that the country might pull out of the United Nations and invite China and others to form a new global forum, accusing it of failing to fulfill its mandate.
Palace officials, however, said the Philippines would remain a UN member and described the president’s comments as expressions of “profound disappointment and frustration.”
Malacañang said the Duterte administration is addressing any serious concerns over its war against drugs after repeatedly drawing flak from critics.
“We are addressing it from our side. As you can very well see, for example, PNP chief Dela Rosa is already facing the Senate regarding that and I think he has also made references to the fact that whatever incidents that (cause) serious concern are already being addressed,” he added.