According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, more than 850 people have been killed in the Philippines since Duterte won the May 9 election, with 650 of the deaths recorded in the last six weeks.
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“Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?” he asked in response to a journalist’s question. Duterte and his aides have given conflicting positions on whether they would allow United Nations experts to come to the Philippines to investigate allegations government security forces are carrying out extrajudicial killings.
The president has gained infamy for his controversial comments and tough approach on crime.
Duterte reportedly said Sunday: “Take us out of your organization”.
The U.N., he said, should return Manila’s financial contributions.
Duterte has repeatedly insisted police have only killed in self defence, while maintaining the other deaths are due to drug syndicates killing each other.
Just days earlier, United Nations experts called on Duterte and the Philippine government to put a stop to the killings of suspected criminals who haven’t had their day in court.
The Filippino president brushed off the criticisms at the time saying: “Why would the United Nations be so easily swayed into interfering in the affairs of this republic?”
He said from 1 July to 21 August, police arrested 10,153 “drug pushers and users” as part of the “double-barrel” policy, a two-pronged campaign that aims to target both high-level criminals and street-level drug users.
Last Thursday, UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard reportedly warned that the “state actors” could be held responsible for the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
Callamard warned Duterte that his fight against the illicit drug trade did not absolve him from the Philippines’ global legal obligations and would not shield him from any liabilities for illegal killings.
Worldwide and local rights groups, some lawmakers and church leaders in the mainly Catholic nation have condemned the killings.
In a Senate hearing, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said more than 1,500 people have died in the fight against drugs but clarified that only 665 were killed in legitimate police operations.
A staunch critic of the president, Senator Leila de Lima, will next week start a congressional inquiry into the killings, summoning top police and anti-narcotics officials to explain the “unprecedented” rise in the body count. “I assume full responsibility for what happened because I was the one who ordered it”, Duterte told the media in Davao City on Sunday.
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“You now, UN, if you can say one bad thing about me, I can give you ten (about you)”, he said, before mentioning the organisation’s “failure” to curb hunger and terrorism.
