Palace shrugs off calls for PH ouster from UNHRC

Malacañang shrugged off calls made by a delegation of Filipinos to the United Nations (UN) to revoke the membership of the Philippines to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

This after the group called the Philippine Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Watch, called for the ouster of the Philippines from the UNHRC after the country reportedly made a “total mockery of international human rights mechanisms.”

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, during the Mindanao Hour/Bangon Marawi press briefing Monday, said the Palace respects the group’s freedom to express sentiments against the government.

“We respect the rights of all, including the extremely critical, to freely express their opinion of the government,” Abella said.

“However, self-styled watchdogs of the Philippines’ human rights performance need to balance their call with legitimate organizations like the United Nations Human Right Council (UNHRC), which recognizes the work the Philippines does, given and despite its challenges,” he added.

The Palace official cited anew the adoption of the UNHRC of the Philippines’ human rights report card, saying this clarifies issues raised by certain rights group.

“The UN body’s unanimous adoption of its report on its review of the Philippines last month, highlighted the Philippines’ clarification of issues brought against it by local interest groups; as well as the Philippine government’s own recommendations on how the UNHRC can further strengthen its review processes in succeeding cycles,” Abella said.

“Having said that, the Philippines, as an active member of the UNHRC and respects this body’s integrity, and will call out attempts to use it seemingly to advance certain interests and political agenda,” he added.

The Philippine UPR Watch Group also cited the Duterte administration’s supposed “continued denial” of alleged extrajudicial killings in the country as basis for its removal from the UNHRC.

“Throughout the three cycles of the Universal Periodic Review, and most especially during the Duterte regime’s participation in the process, the Philippines has exhibited a total mockery of international human rights mechanisms, with the government’s blatant distortion of facts on extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the country, its record of using the UN as a platform to justify its crimes against the Filipino people, and its doubletalk on compliance to human rights instruments,” the group said in a statement.

The group also slammed Abella and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano for having “painted a rosy picture of the human rights situation in the Philippines” amid the violent war against illegal drugs, and the martial law in Mindanao.

Malacañang earlier said it is open to accept help of foreign allies in combating illegal drugs, corruption and criminality in the country but not dictation on how to handle the process following the urging of 39 UN member-states to probe the killings.

“Unfortunately, it still appears that some parties refuse to understand certain aspects of our human rights efforts. So let us be clear. There is no culture of impunity in the Philippines,” Abella had said.

“We will always be happy to accept the help of our foreign friends. But we will never accept dictation on how we are managing our own internal domestic processes,” he added.

Abella also assured the concerned countries that the justice system is working in the country and that credible allegations of human rights violations are being investigated.