“We certainly are not leaving the UN”, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr said in a news conference on Monday.
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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.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged people to kill drug dealers and has called a US ambassador “gay”, but it seems he can’t take criticism himself.
However, the new president’s approach to drug crime is facing scrutiny within the country, with one of Duterte’s most vocal opponents, Senator Leila de Lima, conducting an inquiry into the high numbers of drug-related deaths since he took office.
Philippines national police chief Ronald Dela Rosa said Monday that police and vigilantes have killed about 1,800 alleged criminals since Rodrigo Duterte became president seven weeks ago.
“Should you be that ill-mannered, we might just as well leave”, he said. “If you’re that rude, son of a bitch, we’ll just leave you”, he said. He said the deaths were not the work of the police and invited the United Nations experts to investigate for themselves.
Callamard warned Duterte that his fight against the illicit drug trade did not absolve him from the Philippines’ worldwide legal obligations and would not shield him from any liabilities for illegal killings. You do not go out and give a shitting statement against a country’.
Last week, two United Nations human rights experts urged Manila to stop the killings, saying they amounted to a crime under worldwide law.
“I said, it was a statement that he simply stating the fact that the Philippines is a sovereign nation”, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella explained in a press briefing. The President Duterte lashed at USA police killings of black men.
The foreign affairs chief said the United Nations rapporteurs are welcome to investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the country “but what’s the use when they have given conclusions that are unverified”. “Is that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death”. They also noted that most of those killed are “small time and poor people”.
Another senator, Antonio Trillanes IV, asked dela Rosa why the police have failed to stop the killings by suspected anti-crime vigilantes, including motorcycle-riding gunmen.
President Duterte has denied the government is responsible.
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There have been about 900 executions since May during Rodrigo Duterte’s war on illegal drugs targeting dealers and users.
