The UN’s special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, last week said Duterte’s promise of immunity and bounties to security forces who killed drug suspects violated global law.
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Last Thursday, the United Nations urged Duterte to put an end to the vigilante drug war raging on the streets that has claimed the lives of 850 people since Duterte took office in May of this year.
Philippine senators have opened an inquiry into the killings of more than 1,700 suspected drug dealers and users amid a crackdown spearheaded by President Rodrigo Duterte, with witnesses accusing some policemen of killing suspects and being involved in the illegal drugs trade.
“The president has already made assurance that he will respect human rights and firmly stand against the illegal or criminal killing of people on drug-related offenses”, said Yasay. “They are the ones interfering”.
In his hometown of Davao City, where he spent two decades as mayor before becoming president in a landslide election in May, Duterte suggested the Philippines could align itself with China and African countries to form a more useful worldwide body.
“If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you”, Duterte said in a press conference in his home city of Davao that started about 1am.
The president said that the United Nations rapporteurs broke protocol when they came out with statements criticizing his administration. “Is that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death”.
“I do not want to insult you. You do not go out and give a shitting statement against a country”.
Last Thursday, Duterte took a swipe at the United Nations over the criticisms, accusing the intergovernmental organization of hypocrisy as it kept mum on mass killings in other countries.
“Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?” he asked.
Duterte enjoys high levels of support among Filipinos, who he says are exhausted of the scourge of drugs. “And (critics) say what?”
About 1500 suspects have been killed since May, when Mr Duterte came to power – many of them by civilians. Since he took office in June, some 650 people have been killed by police, with as many as 900 more thought to have been slain by vigilantes. ‘I tell them to arrest these criminals if they surrender peacefully, but kill them if they put up a violent struggle.
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“Bakit di gawin ng United Nations rapporteur depensahan niya rin ang gobyerno, ang ginagawa ng gobyerno na programa against all of these illegal or these criminals who have been victimizing our citizens”, Andanar said in an interview with ANC’s Headstart on Monday morning.
