US secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson has refused to denounce President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs until he had all the “facts from the ground.”
During Tillerson’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Senator Marco Rubio asked Tillerson whether the killings in the Philippines were “conducive to human rights violations that we should be concerned about and condemning.”
Tillerson said he’d need further information in order to comment on the matter.
However, the nominee pointed out that the US and the Philippines have a long-standing friendship. “I think it is important that we keep that in perspective, that long-standing friendship. We need to be sure they stay an ally,” Tillerson said.
Senator Rubio also said in the hearing that since Duterte took office on June 30, police and vigilantes have killed about 6,200 people in the anti-drug war.
Rubio said Duterte himself bragged that when he was mayor of Davao he personally killed suspected criminals to encourage police to do the same, a claim Duterte’s aides have sought to play down as an exaggeration.
Meanwhile, Duterte previously said he will not stop the crackdown until every last drug-related drug criminal is dead.
