MANILA, Philippines – Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano blasted United Nations (UN) human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein for using not only facts from the Philippine government in criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte’s policy on killing drug suspects.

Cayetano said Zeid should have cited a Philippine report to the UN in May, when the UN official was mentioning incidents such as the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in August. 

Zeid, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, made these remarks in a speech before the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, September 11, about human rights issues in 40 countries. 

Reacting to this, Cayetano said in a statement Wednesday evening, September 13, “The Philippines has provided the Human Rights Council with all the facts regarding the campaign against illegal drugs in our report to the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May 2017.” 

“The Commissioner’s report would have been balanced and accurate had he considered the information that we provided, instead of just relying on uncorroborated information,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano did not mention that Zeid cited incidents after May 8, when the Philippines underwent a UN human rights review.

Zeid mentioned issues such as the following in a speech before the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, September 11:

• The killing of Kian Loyd delos Santos, which happened on August 16
• Duterte’s warning to shoot human rights advocates, which he made on August 16
• Duterte’s threat to bomb schools of Lumad or indigenous children, which he stated on July 24

Facts on these issues can be accessed through official government transcripts, government press releases, and news reports from both local and foreign media entities.

Cayetano, who said nothing about these issues raised by Zeid, said the UN official’s report “was deliberate misinformation.” – Rappler.com