MANILA, Philippines – Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin on Friday, July 19, said he doesn’t see anything that would merit international interference in the investigation of the high number of killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

Bersamin was asked by media on Friday to react to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution to come up with a comprehensive report on the killings in the drug war. (READ: On U.N. resolution vs drug war killings: What if Duterte blocks review?)

“You know I am a member of the judiciary and kailangan ipilit kong sabihin sa ngayon wala naman kaming nakikitang dapat lamang na manghimasok taga-ibang bansa,” said Bersamin on the sidelines of the Supreme Court’s launch of a court app.

(You know I am a member of the judiciary and I need to say this that as of now, we don’t see anything that would merit the interference of other countries.)

Petitions are pending before the Supreme Court that seek to declare the entire policy of the war on drugs unconstitutional. The High Court had previously ruled to publicly release tens of thousands of police documents related to the killings.

Bersamin also echoed the Duterte government in saying that the UNHRC resolution, pushed by Iceland, is a “minority” resolution because only 18 of the 47 member countries voted. 

Fourteen countries opposed it and 15 abstained. (READ: Meet PH’s new friends: U.N.-member countries that voted vs human rights resolution)

“Batay sa palitan ni Secretary Panelo saka ‘yung mga naglabas niyan, mukhang tama nga naman sila Secretary Panelo dahil minority reso lang ‘yan,” Bersamin said.

(Based on the exchanges of Presidential Spokesperson Secretary Salvador Panelo and those who released that resolution, it seems Secretary Panelo is right because that’s just a minority resolution.)

Foreign Secretary Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin said in a tweet on July 12 that “any probe resulting from the narrow vote for Iceland resolution will not be allowed into the Philippines.”

Malacañang has also called the resolution “grotesquely one-sided, outrageously narrow, and maliciously partisan.”

Based on existing data, the Duterte government has allowed thousands of drug war killings go unsolved, attributable to the lack of investigations in deaths in police operations due to a presumption of regularity, the passing of the buck between the police and prosecutors, and the alleged lack of witnesses to build a case. – Rappler.com