Malacañang unfazed by UN commissioner’s call for probe on Duterte

MALACAÑANG on Tuesday brushed off the United Nations’ (UN) recent call for an investigation on President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s admission of killing three criminals as mayor of Davao City.

“It’s his opinion. Basically, he’s just airing his opinion regarding the matter,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in a press briefing yesterday.

Mr. Abella was responding to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s proposal on Tuesday to Philippine judicial authorities to launch a probe on Mr. Duterte’s controversial confession in a forum with business leaders on Dec. 14 at the Palace.

“The Philippines judicial authorities must demonstrate their commitment to upholding the rule of law and their independence from the executive by launching a murder investigation,” Mr. Hussein said in a statement.

Mr. Abella further said that the Palace “already attended to the matter at hand,” referring to an incident in 1988 wherein Mr. Duterte himself claimed he killed three kidnappers to save a woman hostage.

“The incident referred to by the President was actually already covered by media and it was legitimate police action,” he said.

For his part, Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson, said: “apparently, the UN rights chief is not familiar with the Philippine Constitution and our laws.”

“First, our President enjoys immunity from suit during his term. Second, no matter how many times a person in our country admits having committed murder, as long as there is no other evidence to corroborate his extrajudicial confession, the case cannot stand in any court of law,” Mr. Lacson, a former police director-general, said in a statement.

In September, Mr. Hussein, in his opening statement at the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council, decried Mr. Duterte’s deadly war on drugs — describing the campaign as “a striking lack of understanding of our human rights institutions and the principles which keep societies safe.” Mr. Duterte has threatened to withdraw the Philippines from the UN, amid a profanity-laced tirade against the organization for criticizing his bloody war on drugs. He took back this pronouncement a few days later saying it was just “a joke.”

Meanwhile, the UN- led investigation on extrajudicial killings scheduled next year might not push through, as the government and the UN have reached a stalemate regarding conditions for the probe.