Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. during the Senate hearing on the proposed P22.09-billion budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs for 2021 on Thursday, October 8, 2020. Screengrab from Senate Youtube livestream
MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin on Thursday said the country needs technical help to address the drug problem and human rights issues but not from those who “pre-judged what happened in the Philippines.”
“We need help and we are willing to do it but we’re not gonna ask for help and get it…in the form of people coming in who already pre-judged what happened in the Philippines. I said no, if I see any of their faces I myself will block them from coming in,” Locsin said during a Senate hearing on the proposed P22.09-billion budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for 2021.
“Of course, Agnes Callamard and their crowd just wanted a lynch mob but I said no I’m not gonna cooperate with that,” the foreign affairs chief added.
Locsin was referring to the UN rights experts who have repeatedly called for an independent investigation into drug war killings in the Philippines.
Locsin’s statement comes after Senator Imee Marcos asked him about the recent resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) offering “technical assistance and capacity-building” to the Philippines in a bid to address killings and human rights violations in the country.
“..It is not in our interest to let these things happen if they happen perhaps we use the metaphor: We are cleaning with a dirty broom. We all have experience in that. There have been mistakes in the beginning but I said what we need is technical help,” Locsin said.
“What we need is technical cooperation…Perhaps instead of naming and shaming, especially without evidence, why don’t we help?…Do you think it is in our interest to fight drugs if we are really bad people?,” he added.
“If we are bad people we would promote drugs the way it is happening in certain central American countries. Now we are fighting the most lucrative business in the world,” he added.
Further, the DFA secretary said the Philippines would need to do its part in capacitating the country to address the drug problem.
“We need to do our part. We’re gonna have to do our part,” he said.
“We’re gonna have to cooperate in getting the capacity to address the drug problem,” he added.
Stopping short of an actual investigation, the UNHRC resolution also recognized government initiatives to address human rights violations under the administration’s war against illegal drugs.
Further, the resolution urged member states of the UN to “encourage and support technical cooperation” between the Philippine government and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Last June, the OHCHR released a damning report which flagged, among others, a “near impunity” in the government’s handling of drug war killings.