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Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. during the Senate hearing on the Department of Foreign Affairs’ proposed P22.09 billion budget for 2021 on Thursday, October 8, 2020. Senate screenshot on YouTube live
MANILA, Philippines – Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said Thursday that the country needs technical help to tackle the drug problem and human rights, but not from those who “prejudged what happened in the Philippines.”
“We need help and we are willing to do it, but we are not going to ask for help and get it … in the form of people who come and who have already prejudged what happened in the Philippines. I said no, if I see any of their faces, I will block their entry myself, ”Locsin said during a Senate hearing on the proposed P22.09 billion budget from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for 2021.
“Of course, Agnes Callamard and her crowd just wanted a lynching, but I said no, I will not cooperate with that,” added the foreign affairs chief.
Locsin was referring to the UN human rights experts who have repeatedly called for an independent investigation into the Philippines’ drug war killings.
Locsin’s statement comes after Senator Imee Marcos asked him about the recent resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) offering “technical assistance and capacity building” to the Philippines in an attempt to address murders and human rights violations in the country.
“… We don’t want to let these things happen if they happen, we might use the metaphor: We are cleaning with a dirty broom. We all have experience in that. There have been mistakes at the beginning, but I said that what we need is technical help, ”Locsin said.
“What we need is technical cooperation … Maybe instead of naming and shaming, especially without evidence, why don’t we help? … Do you think it’s better for us to fight drugs if we’re really bad people?”
“If we are bad people we would promote drugs as is happening in certain Central American countries. Now we are fighting against the most lucrative business in the world, “he added.
Additionally, the DFA secretary said the Philippines would have to do its part to empower the country to tackle the drug problem.
“We have to do our part. We will have to do our part, ”he said.
“We will have to cooperate to get the capacity to tackle the drug problem,” he added.
Without reaching an actual investigation, the HRC resolution also recognized government initiatives to address human rights violations under the administration’s war on illegal drugs.
In addition, the resolution urged UN member states 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, OHCHR published a damning report that noted, among others, “near impunity” in the government’s handling of drug war murders.
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