(Eagle News) — Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella slammed a report released by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) calling on donor countries to end all assistance to the Philippine National Police (PNP) until the killings stop.
“We would advise special interest groups to do their homework more diligently before attempting to engage in propaganda,” Abella said in a statement.
He said that the group should present solid evidence and prove their claims in court.
The New York-based HRW earlier Thursday released a 124-page report titled “license to kill,” which gave an overview of Duterte’s war on drugs.
In the report, the international human rights group detailed specific cases of extrajudicial killings possibly perpetrated by the police, and accused President Rodrigo Duterte of being criminally liable for the thousands of killings linked to the government’s war on drugs.
But Abella pointed out that the Duterte administration may have averted a human rights calamity, adding that “more than 1.1 million drug pushers and addicts have voluntarily submitted themselves to authorities.”
“The observation that the Philippines is in the midst of a ‘human rights calamity’ is thoughtless and irresponsible,” Abella said.
He advised the New York-based rights group to substantiate its claims against policemen with “solid evidence, eyewitness accounts, and sworn statements/ affidavits.”
“Recovered firearms from drug suspects are kept in custody and subsequently presented before legal proceedings. Authorities have noted that there are cases when recovered firearms were traced to have been used in other crimes; most of these are loose and/or unregistered,” Abella said.
“In short, all these accusations of circumventing police procedures should be proven in a competent court and if found meritorious should result in appropriate sanctions against the perpetrators. Failing these, such claims are mere hearsay,” he said.
The Palace official also criticized the HRW for taking to task the government’s focused and decisive war against illegal drugs, saying that “a war on criminality is not a war on humanity.”
He added that claims made by HRW that police are involved in so-called vigilante killings and are planting evidence in crime scenes are mere hearsay and allegations if there would be no proof presented in court.
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