Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte does not endorse extrajudicial killings, his spokesman said yesterday after scathing criticism from United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon over his plans for thousands of people to die in an unprecedented war on crime.

Duterte won last month’s elections by a landslide largely due to an explosive law-and-order platform in which he pledged to end crime within six months by killing tens of thousands of suspected criminals.

He has since offered large bounties to security forces as well as the general public to kill drug traffickers.

However, his designated spokesperson Salvador Panelo insisted Saturday Duterte does not support extrajudicial killings.

“The president-elect has not endorsed – cannot – and will never endorse extrajudicial killings, they being contrary to law,” Panelo said in a statement.

“He does not condone the killing of journalists nor any citizen for that matter, regardless of its purpose.”

“Obviously the UN secretary-general believed the incorrect news reports that gave rise to such wrong perception,” Panelo said in a message sent to media yesterday morning.

“As President, he is bound by his constitutional duty to enforce the law, and under no circumstances will he deviate from it,” he said.

Panelo explained Duterte was just a victim of inaccurate reporting by the media, which gave “rise to the wrong perception that he was encouraging lawless violence.”

“Consequently, he chastises media persons who practice irresponsible journalism,” he said.

Panelo assured Ban that the incoming president continues “his fealty to the Constitution, as well as his determination to suppress criminality in any form.”

“Under a Duterte presidency, the Bill of Rights as enshrined in the Constitution shall be in full bloom,” he emphasized.

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Ban in a speech in New York on Wednesday said that he was “‘extremely disturbed” by Duterte’s remarks, voicing particular concern over his comments seen as justifying killing journalists.

“Such comments are of particular concern in light of ongoing impunity for serious cases of violence against journalists in the Philippines. I will also continue to stand up for the rights of journalists and their defenders to be represented here at the United Nations,” Ban said during the UN Correspondents Association Reception in New York City.

Duterte, who assumes office on June 30, told reporters last week that journalists who took bribes or engaged in other corrupt activities were legitimate targets of assassination.

“Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch,” he said.

Duterte cited the case of Jun Pala, a journalist and politician whose 2003 murder, like those of scores of other journalists killed in the Philippines, has never been solved.

“‘I do not want to diminish his memory but he was a rotten son of a bitch. He deserved it,” Duterte said.

His comments sparked outrage from local and foreign media groups warning that his rhetoric could incite more murders in one of the world’s most dangerous nations for reporters.

One of the deadliest attacks against journalists happened in the Philippines in 2009, when 32 journalists were among 58 people killed by a warlord clan bent on stopping a rival’s election challenge.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by AFP & Rocky Nazareno

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