(Eagle News) — The Palace on Monday, April 23, said the contents of the US State Department’s human rights report were inconsistent with US President Donald Trump’s pronouncements about the Philippines’ drug war.
“If I’m not mistaken, President Trump said he knows what he’s (President Rodrigo Duterte) doing in the Philippines. So I do not know how to reconcile the State Department report with the actual statement of the President (Trump),” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.
For instance, he said he himself heard Trump praising the country’s war on drugs on the sidelines of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in Manila in November last year.
Trump has also congratulated Duterte for his “unbelievable job” in addressing drugs in the country.
According to Roque, it was also unclear how much of what was written in the report was given by the new US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
“But for now, we (are) going by the statements of President Trump that we all heard from the mouth of President Trump,” Roque said.
The report, which said that human rights remain a concern in the Philippines, prompted a strong reaction from Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, who said the Philippines does not need people who tell it what to do.