Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay says the Pacific nation will stay in the United Nations, downplaying a threat issued by President Rodrigo Duterte.
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“Claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its global legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings”.
However on Monday, Philippine National Police chief Ronald Dela Rosa told a Senate committee investigating extra-judicial killings that 712 drug traffickers and users had been killed during police operations.
The President was angered by statements made by a United Nations official condemning the increasing number of vigilante-type killings in the country.
“This is like anarchy”, Trillanes said.
“President Duterte is in position now, but what if his successor will prioritize human rights and conduct investigations?” he asked.
So far, Duterte said 600,000 drug users and pushers have “surrendered” and taken the drug test since his administration launched the campaign after he took over the presidency on June 30 this year. After facing criticism, both have clarified that policemen were under orders to shoot only if their lives are threatened.
“I unequivocally condemn his apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental rights and freedoms”, Ban said.
“Allegations of drug-trafficking offenses should be judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets”, a report released Thursday quotes human rights experts as saying.
Another witness, Mary Rose Aquino, testified that her poor father, accompanied by her mother, had peddled drugs supplied by policemen then remitted the money to them.
The two policemen accused in the killings of Besorio’s boyfriend and his father have been charged with murder, police said.
Police were also investigating 1,067 other drug-related killings, Dela Rosa said, without giving details. “If you’re that rude, son of a b***h, we’ll just leave you”, Duterte told reporters in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern city’s longtime mayor.
The number of drug-related killings since President Rodrigo Duterte took power and declared war on drugs in May has doubled to about 1,800, police said on Monday, a day after Mr Duterte lashed out over United Nations criticism of the wave of deaths.
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“I have previously mentioned that these killings are perpetrated by various syndicate groups involved in illegal drugs”.
