The announcement comes the day after Duterte held a news conference and said the Philippines might leave the United Nations.
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“If you are that rude, we might just as well leave”, he added.
The UN, he said, should refund the country’s financial contribution “so we can go out”.
Duterte’s anti-drug campaign is said to have claimed the lives of around 1,000 drug addicts and dealers since the president took office, and police have admitted responsibility for the deaths of almost 600 drug suspects since July.
In a press conference early Sunday in Davao City, President Duterte threatened to pull the Philippines’ membership from the world body over the UN’s criticisms on the extra judicial killings that marred the Duterte administration’s intensified war against illegal drugs. He may even want to set up a rival group, to which he would invite China and the African nations.
“If [a criminal] fights, and he fights to the death, you can kill him”, Duterte said in June, as president-elect.
Mr Duterte has encouraged not just the police, but the public, to murder suspected drug traffickers.
Duterte, a lawyer famous for an acid tongue who has repeatedly told the United Nations not to interfere, on Sunday stepped up his rhetoric.
In its turn, the United Nations has repeatedly condemned Duterte’s violation of human rights: according to the statistics, about 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since President Duterte was elected on 9 May. Police were also investigating 1,067 drug-related killings outside police work, Dela Rosa said. The Senate probe, led by former Justice Secretary and now Senator Leila De Lima, was prompted by the rising numbers of killings of alleged drug-users and drug-pushers since Duterte assumed office July 1, 2016.
“We are concerned by reports regarding extrajudicial killings of individuals suspected to have been involved in drug crimes in the Philippines”, State Department spokeswoman Anna Richey-Allen said.
The UN’s special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, said Duterte’s promise of immunity and bounties to security forces who killed drug suspects violated global law.
Duterte is unfazed by the criticisms on the growing number of killings.
“We’ve increased police visibility and patrol operations to keep criminals and lawless elements at bay and remove the fear of crime and violence in the hearts of our countrymen”, he said.
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The arbitrary killings of those suspected to be drug peddlers or abusers, have been criticised by human rights bodies and activists.
