US reso condemning drug war ‘interference’ to PH sovereignty

FILE: Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo holds a press briefing for the Malacañang Press Corps (MPC) on Monday, November 26, 2018, at the New Executive Building (NEB) in Malacañang. (Photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA — The resolution adopted by the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco in the United States condemning the Duterte administration’s war on drug is an “outrageous interference” with Philippine sovereignty, Malacañang said on Sunday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo slammed the US resolution which also calls for support for a congressional hearing on the consequences of US tax dollars going to the Philippine military and police and to champion cutting US military aid to the Duterte regime.

“The resolution is a toxic and unacceptable intrusion to our legal processes and an outrageous interference with our country’s sovereignty,” Panelo said in a statement.

“It is astonishingly incredible and amazingly perplexing why men and women of arts and letters such as the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors could believe the false narratives as well as the bogus statistics cited in the Duterte administration’s drug war, fed to them by biased news agencies, anti-Duterte trolls and a biased alleged labor and environmental activist from San Francisco and Richmond,” he added.

The resolution also expressed support for detained Sen. Leila de Lima and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and urged the withdrawal of financial aid to the Philippines.

Panelo said he found it perplexing that board supervisors believe “false narratives” and “bogus statistics.”

He defended the crackdown on illegal drugs anew, noting that extrajudicial killings or deaths arising from drug-related killings are “absolutely not state-initiated or sponsored” citing the death and injuries of scores of policemen.

Panelo said the Duterte administration does not tolerate police abuse, citing the dismissal and prosecution of a Manila police officer for killing an epileptic in a false drug raid, and last year’s conviction of three Caloocan police officers for the killing of student Kian Delos Santos.

Meanwhile, Panelo also explained that the cases of Senators De Lima, (Antonio) Trillanes and Miss Ressa, all staunch critics of the President, are being tried before our local courts.

Human rights groups have claimed that cases against De Lima, Trillanes, and Ressa are an attempt to silence any form of dissent.

De Lima has been detained for two years due to drug charges, Trillanes has been indicted for inciting to sedition, while Ressa was arrested twice over charges on cyber libel and tax evasion.

“They have been afforded their rights to due process. Their criminal prosecution is anchored on their transgressions of our laws and it has absolutely nothing to do with their being critical of the administration,” Panelo said.

Panelo remarked that other harsher critics do not face any criminal complaint because they have not violated any law but just exercising their freedom of speech.

According to Panelo, critics and detractors of the President who failed to convince the majority of Filipinos of their “peddled falsities” have to turn to foreign politicians or international human rights groups.

He also called their efforts to discredit the Duterte administration as “pretended patriotism” and “politically motivated advocacy.”

Panelo, meanwhile, reminded the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that the Philippines is no longer a colony of the United States.

“Like some US Senators, the San Francisco Supervisors have either developed amnesia or have not outgrown their colonial mentality,” Panelo said.