President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday again accused the United Nations of interfering in the country’s affairs.
“When the human rights or whoever is that rapporteur arrives, my order to you is, do not answer… Who are they and who are you to interfere in the way I would run my country?” Duterte said in a speech before policemen in Davao City.
Duterte made the comment after Iceland Foreign Minister Gudlaugur thor Thordarson called on the Philippines to allow UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard to hold its probe into the country’s war on drugs.
Thordarson made the call during the 37th regular session of the Human Rights Council.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that while it was open to a UN probe, it was not open to accepting Callamard, whom Duterte has accused of being biased against him.
It was Callamard who said that the death of Kian Loyd delos Santos should be the last in the administration’s war on drugs.
Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano later told the council that Manila was ready to cooperate in a UN probe, but also said the investigators should be fair and not “weaponize” human rights. Agence France Presse