Cayetano willing to resign, be jailed if PHL presentation at UNHCR proven wrong

Senator and incoming Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday said he is willing to resign from his post or be jailed if it can be proven that what he presented at the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding the country's human rights record is wrong, a report on Unang Balita on Thursday said.

This was the lawmaker's response after critics called his presentation a "cover-up".

Cayetano made the presentation on Monday at the Universal Periodic Review before the UNHRC in Geneva, Switzerland regarding the Duterte administration's war on drugs.

At a press conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where he arrived straight from Switzerland, Cayetano said it is his duty to point out the truth regarding the government's war on drugs, GMA News' JP Soriano reported.

"It is our job to give an accurate report. That's what we gave eh. Will they believe it? It's up to them. Will they not believe it? But we gave our side and then we opened it up to investigation," he said.

Cayetano also clarified before reporters the number of killings in the Philippines, not all of which are linked to the war on drugs.

He said the numbers of extrajudicial killings that have been reported to the United Nations are wrong.

"So ang sinasabi ko lang naman, kung gagamitin niyo ‘yung lumang definition, so tanggapin natin na before Duterte came, there was 11 to 16,000 every year, or 77,000 in the last six years…May nakita na naman akong article kanina. Binaba ko daw numbers ko from 77 to 16. Hindi po. Sabi ko, 11 to 16 every year for the last six years. ..Pag in-add mo ‘yung last six years, 70 to 77,000 ‘yan. Depende if you start at 2009 or 2010 ‘no…So the numbers we’ve given, none of them was fuzzy math or creative math. None of them were clocked out. Ito official government statistics and we’re going to deal with it," he said.

During his presentation before the UNHRC in Geneva on Monday, Cayetano said there was no "sudden wave" of state-sponsored extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. He also asked the UNHRC to visit the Philippines to check on the situation. He also underscored the need to make the Philippines, especially the younger generation, safe from the drug scourge.

Cayetano had also said “fake news and alternative facts” made it appear that the chief executive was “acting with impunity."

Cayetano lamented how the foreign media and various human rights groups got the “wrong information” on the country's war on drugs, a position supported by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

"Their figures are based on fake and manufactured news. The destabilizers refused to listen to the correct figures in the war on drugs," Aguirre said in a text message to GMA News Online.

"Thus, the United States and European Union are fed with fake news and are therefore misinformed. These people should be asked: why is it that 80 percent of the Filipinos in this country who are in the midst of President Duterte's war on drugs, support him?" he added.

The Human Rights Watch said the Duterte government used the denial approach to divert foreign criticisms on the violent war against illicit drugs.

"The Philippine government of President Rodrigo Duterte has a new tactic to deflect mounting foreign criticism of its murderous 'war on drugs' that has killed thousands: simply deny those deaths are anything out of the ordinary," HRW Deputy Director for Asia Phelim Kine said.

Senator Kiko Pangilinan, meanwhile, on Wednesday said the country's presentation at the UNHRC "has apparently failed, as 45 member-states seek a closer look into reported killings linked to the government’s war on drugs."

Callamard

Cayetano said that while in Switzerland, he found out that UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions Dr. Agnes Callamard is not an expert in human rights abuses cases.

"Nagulat ako nung sinabi nung Mission natin 'yun sa ano. No, that's not what she was teaching in Columbia and that's not what her focus was on. It was on government accountability, communications, et cetera 'no. And lalong hindi siya expert sa droga," he said.

Cayetano also claimed Callamard and American professor Carl Hart — whom she cited as claiming there is no evidence shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride leads to violence or causes brain damage — were proponents of the legalization of drug use.

"Iyong ideology nila ay based doon sa paniniwala na ang drugs kailangang i-decriminalize, lalo ‘yung possession for personal use," the lawmaker said.

"Kaya makita niyo, (na-quote) niya ‘yung Dr. Hart na sinasabing ang droga ay — ang shabu ay walang evidence na nakaka-cause ng violence or mental illness, na ang layo-layo sa UN report at tsaka WHO report," he added. 

Callamard has not given any statement yet regarding Cayetano's remarks.

The UN Rapporteur was in the Philippines recently, and on Friday stressed that waging a "war on drugs" like the one employed by the Duterte administration only makes the problem on illegal substance worse, instead of solving it.

Cayetano headed the 16-man Philippine delegation for UNHRC's UPR.

At the UPR, which happens every four years, member countries present their human rights records to the UNHRC. The Philippines last participated in the UPR in 2012.

The period under review was for the last four years of the administration of then-President Benigno Aquino III and the first few months of the Duterte government.

Duterte has bristled at criticism of his anti-crime policy in which thousands have been killed since he took power on June 30 last year.

He made several outbursts against the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, human rights groups and other international institutions, and has said he will pursue deeper ties with countries such as Russia and China. —KG/MDM/KBK, GMA News