Other countries should take cue from SWS findings on drug war —Palace

Malacanang said on Monday that countries criticizing the Duterte administration's war on drugs should pay attention to the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey, which showed that Filipinos are satisfied with the campaign.

Salvador Panelo, spokesperson of president Rodrigo Duterte, welcomed the third quarter survey where 79 percent of the respondents expressed satisfaction to the war on drugs.

"Once again, this is a loud and clear repudiation of the rambunctious political opposition and cantankerous detractors of President Rodrigo Roa and his administration who continue to spread lies and fake narratives to taint the significant headways of the current government," Panelo said in a statement.

"This too shall serve as a wake-up call against foreign countries and entities to take their cue from the genuine sentiments of the Filipino people and cease from their continuous affront against our sovereign state with their pretended or feigned concern about human rights," he said.

The survey came amid the signing of the 2020 budget of the United States, which includes a provision banning the entry of Philippine government officials involved in the detention of Senator Leila de Lima.

The provision in the US Fiscal Year 2020 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill was introduced by US Senators Richard Durbin and Democrat Patrick Leahy last September 27 and adopted at the committee level.

It stated that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shall apply subsection (prohibition on entry) to foreign government officials about whom he “has credible information have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of” De Lima “who was arrested in the Philippines in 2017.”

De Lima, Duterte's fiercest critic, was arrested on February 24, 2017, over drug charges, which she said were false and fabricated by the administration.

De Lima has spoken against the alleged cases of extrajudicial killing of drug suspects.

Several foreign organizations have also raised concern over the alleged violation of human rights on how the drug war is being implemented, which has claimed thousands of lives.

Early last year, the Party of European Socialists said European lawmakers passed a resolution calling on the Philippines to put an end to extrajudicial killings in its anti-drug campaign, release De Lima, and drop human rights defenders from its list of terrorists.

Last year, the US House of Representatives also warned that the United States may stop extending assistance to the Philippines if its anti-drug campaign would go against international human rights. —LDF, GMA News