Cayetano questions UN rights chief’s report

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano claimed that the information reported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on the status of human rights in the Philippines were distorted.

Zeid listed Philippines as one of the 40 countries with “darker and more dangerous” human rights conditions.

“In the Philippines, I continue to be gravely concerned by the President’s open support for a shoot-to-kill policy regarding suspects, as well as by the apparent absence of credible investigations into reports of thousands of extrajudicial killings, and the failure to prosecute any perpetrator,” Zeid said during the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Cayetano slammed the report, saying “the Philippines has provided the Human Rights Council with all the facts regarding the campaign against illegal drugs in their report to the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May 2017.”

He added that Zeid’s report would have had credibility if he referred to the Philippines’ report at the UPR.

Moreover, he stressed that the administration’s war on drugs was implemented in accordance with the law.

(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 09/ 14 / 17)