Bato blasts Bachelet for criticizing Philippine drug war: 'Nakapunta na ba siya rito?'

Pro-administration Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa on Wednesday slammed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet for criticizing the Philippines' war on drugs and questioned her moral ascendancy to do so.

This was after the UN rights chief issued a report examining the allegations of "widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings" linked to the Duterte administration's war on drugs.

"Sino siya para magsabi ng ganoon dito sa atin? Nakapunta na ba siya rito? Naobserbahan ba niya kung anong nangyayari dito kasi ang binabasehan lang niya kasi ay 'yung report na ridiculous at preposterous na report na ginagawa ng ating mga kababayan," Dela Rosa said in an interview on ANC.

A former Philippine National Police chief under the Duterte administration, Dela Rosa pointed out the huge disparity between the 27,000 death toll claimed by human rights groups and the over 5,000 official count by the police on drug suspects killed in the country.

Dela Rosa said the PNP and the government must be dissolved if the public would not trust its data about the anti-illegal drugs campaign.

"If you do not trust the PNP numbers, you dissolve the PNP, if you don't trust the government, tanggalin ninyo ang gobyerno. Let the human rights, sila ang mag-rule ng ating bansa pag ganun," he said.

"Wala na tayong tiwala sa ating government instrumentality. I-dissolve natin lahat pati gobyerno pag hindi tayo maniwala, doon tayo maniwala sa kanila," he added.

Moreover, Dela Rosa said he would welcome Bachelet or any UN representative if they would come to the Philippines to investigate the drug war.

"I welcome that move kung andiyan sila para malaman talaga nila ang katotohanan pero it's not for me to decide it's an executive decision kung i-aallow sila dito para sumali," he said.

In July 2019, the UN Human Rights Council voted to set up an investigation into thousands of killings in the Philippines' war on drugs but the Philippine government rejected the move.

Last month, UN experts renewed their call for an "on-the-ground independent, impartial investigation into human rights violations in the Philippines." -MDM, GMA News