By Azer Parrocha/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution seeking to investigate the Philippines’ human rights situation in relation to the government’s war on drugs is an abuse of the body’s processes, a Palace official said on Monday.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea rejected the Iceland-led resolution, noting that it is unfortunate only a minority or 18 out of the 47-member countries called out the Philippine government for the human rights situation in the country without verifying its facts.
Medialdea said he believed that many, if not most of the UNHRC members, see the resolution in the same light with the majority either abstaining (15 countries) or voting against (14 countries) the resolution.
“We reject this resolution because, through it, a minority has short-circuited and rendered inutile the time-honored mechanisms by which the UN maintains the accountability of member-states, such as the treaty body system and the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review,” Medialdea said in a statement.
Medialdea noted that the Philippines, one of the UN’s pioneering members, has been abiding by these mechanisms, as they embody the processes that give due credence to member-states’ accountability and transparency.
“It is through such mechanisms that the human rights concerns mentioned in the resolution should have been taken up, verified and addressed,” Medialdea said.
“The Philippine government sees the resolution for what it is – a pernicious act, an affront to a sovereign, peace-loving nation, and an abuse of UNHRC processes,” he added.
Medialdea cited how a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey result showed that over 80 percent of Filipinos continue to express approval of the current administration.
He called on the international community to instead listen to the Filipino people instead of being disrupted by numbers from political interest groups.
“We call on the diplomatic community to listen more to the Filipino people, rather than let a few political organizations mislead your capitals as to the real state of human rights in our country,” Medialdea said.
Meanwhile, Medialdea said government will remain unrelenting in its campaign against illegal drugs, corruption, criminality, and terrorism.
“No resolution from any international council, especially those led by States that are misinformed about the situation in our country, shall weaken our resolve to effectively protect our people’s lives, their properties and their freedoms,” Medialdea said.
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