MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) — The Philippines is not leaving the United Nations, the foreign minister said on Monday (August 22), a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to quit the body after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs.
“We are certainly not leaving the U.N.. As I’ve said, the statement of the president is a statement expressing profound disappointment and frustration, and it is not any statement that should indicate a threat to leave the United Nations,” Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay told a news conference in Manila.
“We are a founding member of the United Nations, we believe in the principles and objectives for which the United Nations was founded. Despite its many inadequacies, it remains to be an effective means that which people can get together and talk and resolve their problems, so leaving the United Nations under these circumstances would not be a prudent move,” he added.
At a middle-of-the-night news conference in his hometown in Davao on Sunday (August 21), Duterte railed against the U.N. after two of its human rights experts last week urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial killings that have escalated since Duterte won the presidency on a promise to wipe out drugs.
Yasay said the U.N. experts have not followed protocols in gathering data, which led to Duterte’s statements.
“In this particular instance you could understand the frustrations at which the president has expressed himself on this issue. The fight against drugs is not only an urgent domestic issue, it is in fact a critical issue that many international organisations, including the United Nations, have vowed to eradicate,” Yasay said.
About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since he came to power after winning the election on May 9.
Duterte has denied that the government was responsible for the extrajudicial killings, but has ordered the police to shoot the drug offenders if they resisted arrest.