Rapporteurs call for probe interference on PH sovereignty: Palace

Panelo, also Chief Presidential legal counsel, said the Philippines is a working vibrant democracy not needing foreign intervention. (File Photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA – The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs’ call for an independent probe into alleged human rights violations in the country is an interference on Philippine sovereignty, Malacañang said Saturday.

“‘The 11 UN Special Rapporteurs’ act of peddling a biased and absolutely false recital of facts, adulterated with malicious imputations against the constituted authorities, smacks of unpardonable intrusions on our sovereignty,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

“Let the enemies of the state and their supporters from foreign soil be forewarned that no amount of destructive narratives against this government will envelope it with the appearance of pretended truth to hoodwink the Filipino people in embracing it,” Panelo said.

Panelo, also Chief Presidential legal counsel, said the Philippines is a working vibrant democracy not needing foreign intervention.

“It (Philippines) has demonstrated strength and resilience in exercising the democratic rights outlined by the Constitution through the various institutions, with their respective allocation of power, geared toward the promotion of general welfare,” he said.

“The Judiciary sees to it that the law is applied equally to all, bar none,” he added.

Panelo also cited the need and obligation of the government to combat illegal drugs.

He said the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs “is pursuant to the primary duty of the state to preserve and protect the people. Law enforcement authorities operate on strict protocols. Any deviation from it is met with the unyielding strong arm of the law with no transgressors immune from it.”

Panelo said the information presented by the UN Special Rapporteurs come from the detractors of the Duterte administration.

“All these special rapporteurs can present are general allegations culled from false information emanating from the purveyors of status quo ante the Duterte presidency. Lest these foreign propagandists, masquerading as human right protectors, forget, allegations are not proof,” he said.

Panelo said the reasons cited by the UN Special Rapporteurs for the investigation “have been discredited and repudiated by the very nation they pretend to care about.”

He added that positive survey and election results show negative propaganda against the Duterte administration is not working.

“Survey after survey, however, has demolished this false if not adulterated news. The Filipino people have spoken anew, via the just concluded elections. Those who have spoken against the campaign on illegal drugs and human rights record of this President have been overwhelmingly rejected by the Filipino electorate. They have been resoundingly beaten in the polls,” he said.

“These special rapporteurs should by this time realize that they, who believed in the untruthful advocacies of the electorally vanquished pretenders, have likewise been demolished, beyond redemption,” he added.

UN human rights experts on Friday cited a sharp deterioration in the situation of human rights across the country, including sustained attacks on people and institutions defending human rights as the reason for calling an independent investigation.(EJR/PNA)