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Duterte vows to slap foreign human rights advocate in front of Robredo


President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday threatened to slap a foreign human rights advocate who is critical of his controversial war on drugs.

Duterte took exception to the tweet last week of Phelim Kine, former deputy director for Asia of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, that he was willing to come to the Philippines to advise Vice President Leni Robredo about her new role as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs.

Kine, who was described by Duterte as a United Nations prosecutor, suggested the arrest of the President and his men for allegedly instigating mass murder in the Philippines through killings of drug suspects.

The President said he would slap Kine in front of Robredo.

“Pati ba naman ‘yang prosecutor and the tweet. Nakita ko ‘yung tweet eh. ‘I am packed and ready to go and arrest Duterte.’ ‘Yan ang imbitahin mo? Ganun ang salita sa akin. P___ ina, Leni, sa harap mo sampalin ko ‘yan. Dalhin mo dito,” Duterte told reporters in Malacañang.

“Sinabi ko kasi sa Immigration, papasukin ninyo. I dare you. Kung talagang dedicated ka, papasukin mo dito ‘yang p___ inang ‘yan… Bastos ‘yan.”

Duterte’s spokesperson Salvador Panelo has supported the warning of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. that Kine would be barred from entering the Philippines if he tried to advise Robredo.

Panelo added that anybody who claims that there have been unlawful killings in the anti-narcotics campaign “without justification” could not enter the country.

In July, Iceland initiated the resolution passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council which agreed to set up a preliminary investigation into the human rights situation in the Philippines including the drug war.

Malacañang questioned the propriety and validity of the resolution which was not unanimously adopted. The Palace also found the resolution an affront to the country’s sovereignty and said it was designed to embarrass the Philippines before the international community. —LBG, GMA News

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