DILG denounces US State Dept. report on 'abuses' by Philippines security forces

The Department of the Interior Local Government (DILG) has hit back at the US State Department for its report on alleged human rights abuses in the country, calling it “sweeping, rhetorical, and unfounded.”

In a statement, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said the US State Department's 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices just repeated the supposed unsubstantiated accusations against Philippine security forces from the media.

“DILG denounces the US State Department’s 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices released recently on the alleged abuses by security forces in the Philippines as the Report is sweeping, rhetorical, and unfounded,” he said.

Año pointed out that the report belittles the efforts of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who have been risking their lives to fight criminality and illegal drugs.

“We join the Department of National Defense in posing a challenge to the US Department of State to substantiate their accusations so that we can properly address them through our internal mechanisms and the courts,” said Año, a former military chief of staff.

In its 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the US State Department found reports on human rights abuses allegedly committed by Philippine security forces "credible."

Some charges in connection with these abuses were often “leveled for political reasons,” it said.

Malacañang slammed the report, calling it a rehash of old issues thrown against the Duterte administration.

“The United States has once again displayed how infirmed its intelligence gathering is with its recent claim of ‘credible’ reports of human rights violations by the Philippine government in its State Department 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar said in a statement on Sunday.

“If at all, the reports are nothing but a rehash of old and recycled issues by the perennial detractors of the Duterte administration,” he added. —Joviland Rita/KBK, GMA News