MANILA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte respects human rights, his spokesman said Wednesday in response to the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights singling out the Filipino leader on human rights issue.
Secretary Ernesto Abella said that Duterte, as lawyer and former prosecutor, knows the limits of the power and authority of the presidency.
He quoted what the president said in his inauguration on June 30, stating, "I know what is legal and what is not. My adherence to due process and the rule of law is uncompromising."
"President Duterte is a respecter of human rights," Abella said.
But he added Duterte has also been firm in saying that "human rights cannot be used as an excuse to let the spread of drugs in the country run rampant."
Despite the accusations hurled against the president, Abella said no formal charge of human rights violations has been filed against him.
He also reiterated that the alleged extrajudicial killings were not the policy of the Duterte administration.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, in the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council, said Duterte's statements of "scorn for international human rights law display a striking lack of understanding of our human rights institutions and the principles which keep societies safe."
