Duterte offers to host human rights summit

Amid criticism against the war on drugs and thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings, President Rodrigo Duterte has offered to host a human rights summit in the Philippines to discuss all human rights violations of all governments.

"We should have a summit only on human rights. But we should call all," Duterte said in a press conference in Vietnam.

"Let us investigate all violations of human rights committed by all governments," he added.

Duterte is facing a raft of criticisms over alleged illegal killings from his relentless campaign against illegal drugs in the Philippines.

He also lamented the fact that much of the criticism over human rights violations had been directed at him and his government, with critics oblivious to the violations of other nations such as the United States, which had orchestrated bombing runs in the Middle East that killed innocent civilians and children.

The firebrand leader said he could not understand why the deaths of civilians in the Philippines were given more attention and prominence than the killings of children elsewhere.

Duterte has faced trenchant domestic and international criticisms during his more than a year in office because of his brutal campaign against illegal drugs and the killings and the human rights abuses that have marred it.

Human rights groups and activists have alleged that since the drug war began in July last year more than 12,000 civilians have died, a claim that Duterte and government security forces have denied.

Duterte has been sensitive to criticisms of the war on drugs, at one point challenging European envoys to leave Manila in 24 hours because of their warning about repercussions should the country failed to halt the killings. Duterte's tirade later turned out to be misplaced as it was a liberal group of parliamentarians, not the European Union, which issued the warning.

He also slammed United Nations special rapporteur Agnes Callamard for failing to speak out against other human rights violations transpiring in other parts of the globe.

"I have not heard you comment on the so many killings, the victims of bombs and of violence there in the Middle East," Duterte said.

MITCHELLE PALAUBSANON Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino (center) and the directors of various government agencies sign an agreement to improve the government services in the hospital.