THE Palace on Friday slammed the UN special rapporteurs for misunderstanding of the drug problem in the country.
“What is more alarming than the pandemic use and trade of illegal drugs in the Philippines is the seeming incomprehension by local and international observers,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a statement.
“In his pursuit to staunch the flood of drugs from nearby countries and entrenched manufacturers in key cities and locations, the President framed the menace in terms of war, which resulted in a number of deaths, but even more surprisingly, in the surrender of hundreds of thousands of users.
“The President has said, that a number may have been… killed by vigilantes, or by mistake and therefore has tasked the [National Police Commission] to investigate the ranks of the national police,” the statement said.
Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo scored as “baseless and reckless” a UN statement that the President’s bloody war on drugs amounted to a crime under international law.
“When you are in New York or somewhere else, 10,000 kilometers or miles away from the Philippines and then you make such judgments, that’s recklessness,” Panelo said.
“Those statements are misplaced and baseless, and they better come over and see for themselves the real situation.”
Abella said the inadequate response of the previous administration had given rise to narco-politicians who no longer rely on political machinery but their ability to buy votes with cash derived from the illegal drug trade.
He added that the nature of a number of deaths “imply internecine, or organizational killings within the drug trade.”
On Thursday, UN human rights special rapporteurs said allegations of drug trafficking should be judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets.
“We call on the Philippine authorities to adopt with immediate effect the necessary measures to protect all persons from targeted killings and extra-judicial executions,” said the new UN Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions, Agnes Callamard.
“Claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings,” Callamard said. “The State has a legally binding obligation to ensure the right to life and security of every person in the country, whether suspected of criminal offenses or not.”
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Dainius PÅ«ras, noted that “however necessary, responses to the illicit drug trade must be carried out in full compliance with national and international obligations and should respect the human rights of each person.”
“Concerning drug-dependency, this should be treated as a public health issue and justice systems that decriminalize drug consumption and possession for personal use as a means to improve health outcomes,” PÅ«ras said.
Panelo, however, insisted police only killed suspects in self-defense while other deaths were the work of drug syndicates who feared their members would surrender and cooperate with the authorities.
“How can you stop the killing of members of the syndicates? You cannot be guarding them all the time,” Panelo said in response to the UN experts’ call.
Abella said the government is undertaking a general cleanup of police ranks.
“The President therefore decries the attribution of killings to the Philippine government. This is simply unfair, especially to the hardworking men and women in uniform who risk their lives and limbs to win the war against drugs.
“The government approach is to see drugs as a public health and social issue, but also as a national security issue,” he added.
International and local rights groups, some lawmakers and church leaders have condemned the killings. The Senate is set to launch an investigation next week into possible rights violations in police operations.
Still, Duterte’s police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said Friday law enforcers would not be deterred and the campaign was just starting.
“It’s a low [point] when we are being investigated but we go on… we never back down,” he said.