Palace insists international probe into drug war an interference with PHL sovereignty

Malacañang on Friday criticized a draft resolution backed by several countries which called for a United Nations investigation into the killings in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

Duterte’s spokesperson Salvador Panelo reiterated that an international investigation on the deaths attributed to the President’s signature policy initiative would be an interference with the country’s sovereignty.

“Any move that will interfere with...the management of this country by a sitting president elected overwhelmingly by the people to our mind is an interference with our sovereignty,” Panelo told reporters.

“The problem with those who initiated it, they are believing in the false news, the false information, the false narratives initiated and spread by those who hate the President’s guts and political will,” he said.

Backed by more than two dozen states, Iceland has submitted a draft resolution to the UN Human Rights Council calling the body to prepare a comprehensive written report on the human rights situation in the Philippines.

The document urges the Philippine government to prevent extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, carry out impartial investigations and hold perpetrators accountable in accordance with international norms and standards including on due process and rule of law.

Panelo said other countries had no right to dictate on a sovereign nation like the Philippines.

He also said the authorities had properly documented the operations related to the anti-narcotics campaign, which has killed more than 6,000 suspected drug dealers since Duterte assumed office in June 2016.

“To those foreign governments which have been misled by false news and untruthful narratives about the President’s war against illegal narcotics, we reiterate that drug-related deaths arising therefrom are neither state-initiated nor sponsored,” Panelo said in a separate statement.

“These drug-related deaths are consequences of police operations when the subjects violently resist arrest that endanger the lives of the law enforcers who act on self-defense, which is sanctioned by law.”

He said “abusive police officers are not tolerated” by the government and “must face the corresponding punishment of their unlawful actions.”

Panelo urged UN member states to be more circumspect in evaluating reports concerning the domestic affairs of other countries “in order that they may demonstrate respect to the latter’s sovereignty and independence.”

“This administration respects human rights,” he said, adding the reelection of the Philippines to the UN rights body during Duterte’s term “bespeaks the growing appreciation of the international community on our policies with respect to human rights.”

The Iceland initiative came weeks after 11 independent experts also urged the UN body to launch an independent investigation into what they called a sharp deterioration in human rights across the Philippines due to "staggering number" of supposed unlawful killings of drug suspects.

Malacañang had rebuffed such call. —LDF/RSJ, GMA News