Malacañang on Saturday rejected a United Nations report detailing serious human rights violations in the Philippines, saying its conclusions were faulty and that the government’s actions were validated by public support for President Rodrigo Duterte.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said rule of law continued to prevail in the Philippines and “any offenses committed by law-enforcement or otherwise will be dealt with in accordance with due process.”
The June 4 report, prepared by the UN Human Rights Office in response to last year’s resolution by the UN Human Rights Council, said the Duterte government’s drug war and national security approach had led to killings, arbitrary detentions, and a crackdown on dissent.
The report said at least 8,663 people have been killed since the drug war began in 2016, although estimates by non-government groups were three times higher. At least 248 human rights defenders, legal professionals, journalists and trade unionists have been killed in relation to their work between 2015 and 2019, it said.
There has been “near impunity for these killings, with only one conviction for the killing of a drug suspect in a police operation since mid-2016,” it added.
READ: UN report calls for investigations into ‘serious’ PH human rights violations
Roque said: “We firmly reject these conclusions. That being said, the Government will continue to respect its international legal obligations, including human rights.”
While the government respects rights guaranteed by the constitution, it was also the government’s duty to “enforce the acknowledged and clear limits of these rights: public order, public safety and security, and public health,” he said.
“In the midst of a crippling pandemic, it is the Philippine Government’s responsibility to ensure that its citizens are not exposed to the virus, misled by misinformation spread under the guise of free speech, or harmed by criminals taking advantage of a precarious situation,” he said.
Palace Communications chief Martin Andanar earlier said accusations of arbitrary arrests were “unfounded and uncalled for.”
“All operations that the government has undertaken regarding this matter, are legal operations that are hinged on the respect for the rule of law and due process as provided by the country’s justice system,” he said.
Andanar also said that while the government respects free speech, it would move legally against disinformation. He cited the case of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Taiwan that the government tried, but failed, to repatriate.
Taiwan refused to the deport the OFW, who had posted anti-Duterte statements on social media.
“Such instances are not acts curtailing these freedoms, instead they are acts meant to undermine ill interests of promoting an anarchical and ignorant society,” Andanar claimed. (PressONE.ph)