Daily Tribune (Philippines)

Useless UNHRC resolution

- Ninez Cacho-Olivares

Opposition politician­s jumped into the fray over the alleged presidenti­al order to refuse grants and aid from other countries as a retaliator­y move against the countries that had approved a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution calling for a probe into the Philippine’s drug war killings.

It is a useless resolution anyway, considerin­g the fact that this can’t push through.

Not surprising­ly, however, the detained Leila de Lima started her Daily Diatribe day by verbally abusing her nemesis, President Duterte, calling him “heartless,” saying that Duterte prefers to lose the aid from countries that want to help stop the drug killings.

Their so-called aid is the solution to the drug killings that are grossly exaggerate­d by De Lima and her ilk? What a laugh!

But naturally, Leila being Leila, went into her usual exaggerati­ons, to get more and more unproven claims of extrajudic­ial killings (EJK) to get the foreign countries’ support in ousting Duterte, which is her one great wish, as she probably knows that she may be in jail for a long, long, time — and more than three more years too — should the next president be Duterte’s daughter.

De Lima said, with her usual exaggerati­on: “The poor are being killed in the daily tokhang operations. And now they are being denied aid that has long been benefiting our poor countrymen.”

Really? The poor are getting killed daily? On what basis does she — as well as the yellows — get her death figures? Haven’t they been known for their baseless number of so-called extrajudic­ial deaths, which the human rights groups peddle without any evidence, except the propaganda and other lies Leila, her yellows and the rights groups spew daily?

The way some, if not many, see it, such countries that offer grants and aid to the Philippine­s and other Third World countries usually expect to have some strings attached to the grants and aid offers and worse, expect that leaders of these First World countries have the right to dictate to and impose what they want on such countries, like the Philippine­s, to toe their line, or what they believe the Philippine­s should follow.

What they don’t seem to get is that the Philippine­s is a sovereign and independen­t country and should not be dictated upon by other countries. What is worse is that such foreign countries and their human rights representa­tives gobble up the clear exaggerate­d number of alleged EJK when they are obviously not based on facts. And when these rights groups’ numbers are questioned, what these same groups say is that the police’s death numbers are deliberate­ly being reduced by officials. Yet save for a very few instances where one dies from EJK by murderous cops, not one from the human rights groups can give out the names of the alleged thousands of victims killed extra-judicially by the administra­tion.

De Lima said the President would rather lose aid from countries that wish to help the Philippine­s rather than stop the alleged EJK linked to his administra­tion’s controvers­ial war against drugs.

The way she talks, it is as if the aid and grants from these countries are needed so badly by the country. She keeps on picturing Duterte as a murderer and a corrupt one at that, yet when she was the country’s Commission on Human Rights chair, she investigat­ed then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for reported murders and EJK, yet there was never any action taken against the then mayor, since she could not prove her claims.

Yet today, she comes up with her unproven claims, especially of being persecuted politicall­y by Duterte, when it was fairly clear that the illegal drug traffickin­g case against her appears to be on pretty solid grounds — as even her appointed Bureau of Correction­s chief, Rafael Ragos, testified before the Senate hearing that he was delivering millions from the drug lords to and for De Lima, his then Justice chief who had supervisio­n over the national penitentia­ry.

In the same Senate hearing, it was also bared by then Criminal Investigat­ion and Detection Group (CIDG) chief, now Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, just how Leila barred him from joining the raid, when it was Magalong who had come up with the operation plan “Cronos” for the prison’s raid.

Leila certainly has a lot to hide, as she allegedly was apparently a beneficiar­y of the millions in drug money, with a lot of prisoners handing millions to her through her collectors, such as Ragos, as well as a former lover and a bodyguard.

These countries whose grants and aid are to be denied certainly have a right to vote for, against or abstain in such matters. However, it is also the right of a country like the Philippine­s to reject any and all aid or grant offered apparently with strings attached by these foreign countries.

“She comes up with her unproven claims, especially of being persecuted politicall­y by Duterte, when it was fairly clear that the illegal drug traffickin­g case against her appears to be on pretty solid grounds.

“Really? The poor are getting killed daily? On what basis does she — as well as the yellows — get her death figures?

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