The Philippine government should listen to the members of the United Nations Human Rights Council who voted for a probe into the Duterte administration’s deadly anti-illegal drugs campaign, says Sen. Francis Pangilinan.
He added that the government should “take all necessary measures to prevent extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, to carry out impartial investigations and to hold perpetrators accountable, in accordance with international norms and standards, including on due process and the rule of law.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council voted on Thursday last week to investigate the thousands of killings committed under the war against drugs.
The government said that around 6,600 people had been killed by police in shootouts with suspected drug dealers since Duterte was elected in 2016. Activists, on the other hand, said the death toll has reached more than 27,000.
The UNHRC resolution, which was led by Iceland, was adopted at the forum in Geneva by a vote of 18 countries in favor and 14 against, including China, with 15 abstentions, including Japan.
“We hope this resolution will convince the Executive department, the AFP and the PNP, leaders of both Houses of Congress to rethink its drug war policy and find real, long-lasting solutions to the drug menace that places a premium on respect for human life. Daily killings while failing to go after drug syndicates is not the solution to eradicating the menace of illegal drugs,” Pangilinan said.
“We also urge the Supreme Court to view this resolution as a signal that the international community is deeply concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country, and to act swiftly to correct the situation by ruling on the tokhang cases still pending before it,” he added.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. rejected the resolution and even called the document a “travesty” incited by “false information.”
“You don’t have the wherewithal, so all you can do is insult. The United Nations is a collection of sovereignties and not a sovereign collective,” Locsin said.
“Thus, the Philippines rejects this resolution. It cannot, in good conscience, abide by it. We will not accept a politically partisan and one-sided resolution, so detached from the truth on the ground,” he added.
Pangilinan, however, said “Long after the Duterte administration is gone, we will all be judged as to where we stood as mass murder of our hapless poor was taking place in our country.”
