PNP unfazed by UN resolution to probe PH’s drug campaign

The CHR filed cases against police officers allegedly involved irregularities or have abused their authority during anti-illegal drugs operations. (File photo: Philippine National Police/Facebook)

MANILA –The Philippine National Police (PNP) will remain vigilant to prevent crimes and will continue to perform its mandate to enforce the law following established operational procedures, with the utmost respect for human rights, an official said Friday.

“On our part, we will just do our work and the issues that they are discussing, we have leaders in our country, officers of the government, who are dealing with this. For the PNP, this won’t affect our work,” National Capital Region Police Office director Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar told reporters at the sidelines of an event at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

“We continue to our doing but rest assured what we are doing is based on human rights based on the observation of law and adherence to police operation procedure and any deviation and violation of these, we don’t tolerate,” he said.

Eleazar was reacting to the passage of a resolution, seeking the intervention of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate the human rights situation in the country.

Meanwhile, PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said the country has its own laws and a Constitution that ensures the protection of human rights.

“Show us the list, names and we will gladly investigate all of these if they are true. We have the list, ours is covered by data, records and these are all submitted to the OSG (Office of Solicitor General),” Albayalde told reporters at the sidelines of the 2nd anniversary of PNP-Drug Enforcement Group at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

“We don’t need probably anybody or even especially international human rights committee to conduct an investigation. We have our on CHR (Commission on Human Rights) also which is perfectly working. In fact for the year alone, we filed more than 300 cases against our personnel compared to those 82 charges filed against our personnel initiated by the CHR,” Albayalde said.

The CHR filed cases against police officers allegedly involved irregularities or have abused their authority during anti-illegal drugs operations.

On the other hand, Senator Ronald dela Rosa urged the UNHRC investigators to come to the country to see that they are being misled by the people feeding them erroneous information about the killings related to drugs campaign.

“You were misled by these people who want to bring this government down,” dela Rosa said.

He reiterated that those killed in the drug operations fought it out with the authorities.

“I will have my head cut-off if this is state-sponsored. You come here and cut my head off if this is state-sponsored… these alleged extrajudicial killings that you are claiming,” dela Rosa said.

The Iceland-initiated resolution was adopted with 18 affirmative votes, 14 against, and 15 abstentions.

The 18 states that voted “yes” were Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, and Uruguay.

Angola, Bahrain, Cameroon, Hungary, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia voted “no”, while 15 countries abstained, including Japan, South Africa, Brazil, and Pakistan.