UN rapporteur invited to probe drug killings

MANILA - Malacañang has sent a formal invitation to United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard to probe the supposed extrajudicial killings of drug personalities in the country.

Speaking to reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea had sent the letter to Callamard, who earlier condemned the administration’s staunch war on drugs.

Medialdea, he said, is awaiting Callamard’s response.

“Palace invites the UN to probe killings. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said the Palace has sent the invitation to UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard and he’s waiting her response,” Abella said.

Earlier, Callamard slammed the Duterte administration for allegedly giving the people, especially the authorities, the license to kill.

“Directives of this nature are irresponsible in the extreme and amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law. It is effectively a license to kill,” Callamard said.

Callamard’s statement has prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to launch tirades against the UN, as well as his other critics, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU).

Duterte then publicly announced that he would invite them to go to the Philippines and probe the spate of killings of alleged drug suspects.

Abella said that Callamard should also look into the deaths of policemen who died in drug buy bust operations for her to

have “an accurate perspective” of the drug menace in the country.

“In his invitation, the Palace has also urged – and I think this is notable – the UN rapporteur to include in her investigation, the killings of law enforcers by drug suspects so she could obtain an accurate perspective of the drug problem in the country,” the presidential spokesperson said. SUNNEX