Malaca\u00f1ang on Friday brushed off an allegation by Amnesty International (AI) Philippines that President Duterte had made the country \u201ca far more dangerous place\u201d to live in.<\/p>\n\n
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the decline in the number of common crimes and the support of the majority of Filipinos for the Duterte administration\u2019s war on drugs belied the rights organization\u2019s allegation.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere is no truth to the statement of Amnesty International that President Duterte has made the Philippines \u2018a far more dangerous place,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n
In a statement on Thursday, AI Philippines director Jose Noel Olano said \u201cimpunity and lack of accountability have been shamelessly displayed at almost all levels\u201d of the Duterte administration.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt is not only Duterte\u2019s speeches about keeping our country safe that has become mere lip service but in his audacity to smear human rights, he has rolled back on hard-won human rights protections that are supposed to keep everyone safe, in the first place,\u201d Olano said.<\/p>\n\n
Tagle admits pain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cAbandoning human rights values and principles is a failure on his part and comes with a huge cost of essentially guaranteeing that no one can ever be safe because the country has become a far more dangerous place,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Manila archbishop, admitted to being pained whenever the Philippines or being a Filipino was criticized because of the apparent disregard for human rights and the rule of law in the country.<\/p>\n\n In his speech at the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization at Cuneta Astrodome on Thursday, Tagle urged Filipinos to show to the world, \u201cas the country\u2019s true representatives,\u201d their dignity as a people.<\/p>\n\n Roque cited a Social Weather Stations survey, which showed that victims of common crimes fell to a record low of 6.1 percent in 2017, while the annual average for property crimes were at a low of 5.6 percent last year.<\/p>\n\n Legitimate operations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n He also cited a Pulse Asia survey which showed that nearly nine out of 10 Filipinos, or 88 percent, supported the Duterte administration\u2019s war on drugs.<\/p>\n\n \u201cWe reiterate that the administration\u2019s campaign against illegal drugs is conducted through legitimate police enforcement operations, and deaths arising from these are due to the drug personalities\u2019 violent resistance to lawful apprehensions,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n\n He added that the President, a lawyer and former prosecutor, had previously prosecuted murder as a capital offense.<\/p>\n\n \u201cHe, therefore, does not and will never condone extralegal killings, as he maintains zero tolerance for erring policemen who digress from standard protocols and abuse their power,\u201d Roque said. \u2014WITH A REPORT FROM JOVIC YEE<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Malaca\u00f1ang on Friday brushed off an allegation by Amnesty International (AI) Philippines that President Duterte had made the country \u201ca far more dangerous place\u201d to live in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":1012011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,34,37,45],"tags":[1987,8330,182619],"byline":[189907],"source":[206078],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n