PHL's removal from UNHRC won't happen —Panelo

Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo on Monday said the Philippines will not be removed from the United Nations Human Rights Council over drug-related related killings in the country.

In an interview on Unang Balita, Panelo cited that the UNHRC had recently adopted the Philippines' human rights report.

"Remember, the Foreign [Affairs] Secretary [Alan Peter] Cayetano pumunta sa UN noon eh, tinanggap 'yung kanyang report," Panelo said.

Human Rights Watch Geneva advocacy director John Fisher on Sunday told GMA News Online in an interview that there is enough basis to remove the Philippines from the UNHRC.

Fisher said the Philippines is "not upholding the highest standards of human rights," citing the thousands of people who have been killed in President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war.

He also cited the Philippines' refusal to heed calls of other member states to stop the killings.

Panelo reiterated in the interview that the supposed extrajudicial killings "are not state initiative."

"The President will never allow it, extrajudicial killings. He will go after this with hammer and tongs," he added. —Marlly Rome Bondoc/ALG, GMA News