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Palace asks Amnesty International to 'sit down with government' to discuss rights issues

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Job Manahan, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Multi-sectoral groups hold a protest ABS-CBN News/file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/life/03/29/20211210-human-rights-day-protest-jc-8.jpg"/><figcaption>Multi-sectoral groups hold a protest to commemorate International Human Rights Day at the University Acenue in University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City on December 9, 2021. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/file</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA— Malacañang asked representatives of Amnesty International (AI) on Tuesday to &quot;sit down with government&quot; and discuss rights issues and their concerns, after the group released a scathing report on unabated &quot;unlawful killings&quot; under the Duterte administration. The &quot;lack of accountability&quot; among government officials supposedly facilitated rights violations even during President Rodrigo Duterte&#x27;s last year in power, the non-government organization&#x27;s State of the World&#x27;s Human Rights <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-east-asia-and-the-pacific/philippines/report-philippines/#endnote-3">Report</a> 2021-2022 read.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/01/22/duterte-wants-next-president-to-continue-drug-war">Duterte wants next president to continue war on drugs; says not worried about ICC probe</a></li></ul>Amnesty International though, noted the justice department&#x27;s review of 52 drug war cases even if &quot;the review was woefully inadequate and failed to meet international standards.&quot; &quot;Its limited findings contradicted police claims that lethal force had been justified, and confirmed violations documented by local and international human rights groups,&quot; according to the report. But acting Palace spokesman Martin Andanar said the international group failed to vet the information it used, describing it as &quot;cut-and-paste collection of recycled issues&quot; hurled by critics against government.&quot;In keeping with our commitment to remain open to multi-stakeholder engagements, we ask AI to sit down with government to clarify whatever concerns them, valid issues or otherwise,&quot; said Andanar.&quot;AI’s reports are never vetted with the Philippine government if only to authenticate their information. The absence of such vetting relegates AI’s report to a mere false rehash,&quot; he added. &quot;That especially includes its false narratives on the current government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign and issues surrounding Maria Ressa and Senator Leila de Lima, all of which have been previously answered.&quot;The Amnesty International also raised concerns on the death of 9 activists in Calabarzon, and how &quot;attacks persisted against Indigenous peoples and Indigenous peoples’ rights activists.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/14/22/nbi-files-murder-raps-vs-cops-in-bloody-sunday-killings-of-fisherfolk-leaders">Duterte wants next president to continue war on drugs; says not worried about ICC probe</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/08/21/bloody-sunday-govt-urged-to-probe-tokhang-style-killings-of-9-activists">Bloody Sunday: Gov&#x27;t urged to probe &#x27;tokhang-style&#x27; killings of 9 activists</a></li></ul>The group cited Windel Bolinget&#x27;s case, who was charged with murder over the death of indigenous leader Garito Tiklonay Malibato in Kapalong, Davao del Norte. The case was dismissed in July last year.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/22/21/tagum-court-dismisses-criminal-charge-activitists">Tagum court clears 6 activists accused of murder despite not being in crime scene</a></li></ul>&quot;The linking of organizations and individuals to communist groups by the authorities, known as &#x27;red-tagging&#x27;, led to killings and harassment of human rights defenders, political activists and others,&quot; said Amnesty International.Despite these, Andanar claimed that the country&#x27;s election in the United Nations Human Rights Council for a fifth term is an affirmation for the government&#x27;s &quot;faithful adherence to promoting, protecting, and fulfilling the human rights of the Filipino people.&quot; The International Criminal Court in September last year authorized a full inquiry into Duterte&#x27;s war on drugs. The probe was <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/20/21/icc-prosecutor-suspends-probe-into-ph-drug-war-killings">suspended</a> in November 2021 as the court assessed &quot;the scope and effect of the deferral request&quot; of the Philippine government. <div>COVID WOES </div>Amnesty International also lamented the continued strict lockdowns last year, as well as the &quot;inadequate access to health care&quot; as COVID-19 infections rose. The Philippines battled a surge in infections last year brought by COVID-19 variants. Andanar asks the group to fact-check first, as some of their claims were supposedly &quot;far from truth.&quot;&quot;AI even referred government’s COVID-19 response as &#x27;mishandling,&#x27; which is far from the truth as all regions in the Philippines are presently at minimal risk case classification,&quot; he said. The country ranked last in Bloomberg&#x27;s <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/27/22/philippines-places-last-anew-in-covid-resilience-index">previous</a> COVID-19 Resilience Index based on how effectively a government is handling the virus. Bloomberg assessed 53 countries.In Bloomberg&#x27;s February Index, the country placed 50th in the ranking. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/25/22/ph-moves-up-from-bottom-of-covid-19-resilience-ranking">PH no longer worst country in global COVID-19 resilience ranking</a></li></ul>Philippines recorded less than 500 daily COVID-19 cases in the past 7 days, monitoring by the ABS-CBN Data Analytics team showed.<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1634962" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

The Palace said the international group failed to vet the information it used, describing it as 'cut-and-paste collection of recycled issues' hurled by critics against government.

Palace asks Amnesty International to 'sit down with government' to discuss rights issues

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Palace asks Amnesty International to 'sit down with government' to discuss rights issues

Job Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

Published March 29, 2022 07:25 PM PHT

Read More:

War on Drugs

Amnesty International

drug war

Duterte

Martin Andanar

Amnesty International report 2021 2022

State of the World's Human Rights Report 2021-2022

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