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[av_heading heading=’Palace: Rights group ‘plays blind, deaf, dumb’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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MANILA – “Off track” was how a Malacañang official called the latest Human Rights Watch (HRW) statement saying the government has not made “genuine efforts” to seek accountability for alleged human rights abuses related to the war on drugs.
“HRW has a penchant for playing blind, deaf and dumb, refusing to acknowledge the efforts of the administration in addressing alleged abuses of scalawag policemen,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said on Sunday, the International Human Rights Day.
All officers at the Caloocan City police station have been relieved from their posts due to alleged abuses, Roque said.
President Rodrigo Duterte also assigned the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as the sole agency authorized to conduct antidrug operations in light of allegations that police summarily execute drug suspects.
“Lest we forget, as much as due process governs the cases of alleged victims, the same must likewise be accorded to state agents accused of being perpetrators,” Roque said.
Meanwhile, Roque said the government vows to ensure efficiency in public service so the poor would be empowered to rise from poverty.
“That direction is what inspires the government’s compliance with its human rights obligations,” said Roque.
“As a Nobel Peace Prize winner once said, ‘Poverty is the absence of human rights,’” he said, quoting Bangladeshi businessman Muhammad Yunus.
According to the Palace official, the Duterte administration works with “the best interest of every Filipino – especially the poor and the marginalized and most vulnerable – as its main concern.”
“These are the women and children in crises situations, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, migrant workers, older persons, and people and communities displaced by natural and human-induced calamities, among others,” he said./PN
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