There is no “mounting opposition” to President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, Malacañang claimed on Saturday, as it slammed United Nations rapporteur Agnes Callamard for saying that the thousands of deaths in the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign had given rise to a sense of impunity.
“What she’s saying that there’s a mounting opposition, it’s a minority voice that favors liberal politics,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella told state-run dzRB radio.
“However, on the ground, it’s really a different situation here in the Philippines, and if you’ll base it on public opinion, we really made big strides. So in terms of support … Do you expect support to come from outside? [or] Would you expect support from inside?”
Following a recent survey, Callamard said that while the President remains popular, there is already an increasing opposition against Duterte’s drug war, which has already killed more than 7,600 people, mostly drug users and small-time dealers, since he took office.
“The difference between the number of reported killings and the number of court cases is unbelievable,” Callamard said in a Reuters report. “It’s very unusual for that degree of impunity to remain restricted to one kind of crime or one type of community,” she added.
“There is an increasing awareness on the part of the Filipino people that the war on drugs could hurt them. The surveys that are being done indicate support for the president…but critique the war on drugs,” the rapporteur said.
In a separate tweet, the UN rapporteur reminded Duterte that his war on drugs “is not just a waste of money” but could also “make the problem worse,” following the unsolicited advice given by former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria that the trash-talking Philippine leader is repeating his mistakes.
Abellla, however, said that the critics of the president, like Callamard, have vested interests to start with.
“What we hear from outside are mainly criticisms. And I suppose that it’s also their role. But we also have to understand that, we also have to understand that those critics are also voices of other forces that are trying to, they also have their own agenda,” he said.
Abella added that Duterte continues to “reconfigure and rebalance” his war on the illegal drug menace.
“The President has been consistently very strong in protecting the interest of the nation and maybe it’s what some people don’t appreciate too much,” he said, saying public opinion showed that Filipinos support Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.
“[Duterte] is very persistent in pursuing and making sure that the—apparatus of drugs is destroyed,” he added.
