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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Incoming Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday said he was ready to face the consequences if his critics prove that he misled the United Nations when he defended the country’s human rights record earlier this week.
“I’m willing to resign, to be jailed, to be exiled if mali ‘yung prinesent ko or at the very least if I intentionally misled anyone,” he told reporters covering President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Cambodia.
(I’m willing to resign, to be jailed, to be exiled if what I presented was wrong or at the very least if I intentionally misled anyone.)
READ: Cayetano team going to Geneva to defend Duterte’s rights record
Cayetano, who went straight to Cambodia from Switzerland, was nominated by Duterte to be the next foreign affairs secretary.
Cayetano, who was Duterte’s running mate in last year’s presidential elections, co-headed the Philippine delegation that went before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland last May 8.
During his presentation, he insisted that the government’s critics have been citing the wrong numbers in relation to summary killings linked to Duterte’s drug war. Cayetano said extrajudicial killings should only refer to victims connected with cause-oriented groups or with the media.
He cited Administrative Order 35, which mentions the “silencing” or intimidation the “legitimate dissent and opposition raised by members of the civil society, cause-oriented groups, political movements, people’s and non-government organizations, and by ordinary citizens.”
“Lahat ng prinesent (present) ko is based on fact, based on actual numbers ‘no. So remember, dati pa sinasabi na maraming extrajudicial killings,” he said during the late night press briefing.
(All of the things I presented is based on fact, based on actual numbers. So remember, they have long been saying that there are a lot of extrajudicial killings.)
The Senator argued that critics should not be using the term extrajudicial killings for people killed during drug operations.
He said if such a broad definition was to be used, it means there were 11,000 to 16,000 extrajudicial killings each year before Duterte became president.