The United Nations Human Rights Council will now be investigating drug-related killings under the Duterte administration, after member-countries favoring a probe outnumbered those opposing it and abstaining from it.
The 18 countries who voted to adopt the Iceland-led resolution seeking to find out the human rights situation under the term of President Rodrigo Duterte were the following:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahamas
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Fiji
- Iceland
- Italy
- Mexico
- Peru
- Slovakia
- Spain
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Uruguay
Those who opposed the resolution were the following, including the Philippines:
- Angola
- Bahrain
- Cameroon
- China
- Cuba
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Hungary
- India
- Iraq
- Philippines
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Somalia
Meanwhile, the following 15 countries abstained:
- Afghanistan
- Bangladesh
- Brazil
- Burkina Faso
- Chile
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Japan
- Nepal
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- South Africa
- Togo
- Tunisia
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo has slammed the resolution, saying it was an affront to the country’s sovereignty and designed to embarrass the Philippines before the international community.
Panelo said said the government objects and condemns the the resolution, “the same being based on false information and unverified facts and figures.”
“The resolution is grotesquely one-sided, outrageously narrow, and maliciously partisan. It reeks of nauseating politics completely devoid of respect for the sovereignty of our country, even as it is bereft of the gruesome realities of the drug menace in the country,” he said.
“Evidently, the resolution was designed to embarrass the Philippines before the international community and the global audience.”
Panelo said the resolution was “offensive” and “insulting” to the majority of Filipinos who support Duterte’s “unique” leadership style. — MDM, GMA News
