Duterte invites UN and EU to look into alleged killings
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday he would invite the United Nations and its rapporteur, and the European Union to come to the country to look into alleged extrajudicial killings.
In separate speeches in Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro, Duterte said he ordered Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to send the invitation to the UN and EU.
"I have ordered the Executive Secretary. I'm inviting the rapporteur, (UN Secretary General) Ban Ki-Moon, the EU lawyer to come here, to investigate me," he said.
"But I said this could not be one-way affair. They could ask all the questions they want," he said.
However, Duterte said in keeping with a time-honored principle, he should be given the "right to be heard. I'll be also allowed to ask them questions."
The UN and EU, along with the United States, have raised concern over the increasing number of suspected drug personalities who were killed due to the all-out war of the government against illegal drugs.
The UN asked Duterte that its rapporteur be invited to the Philippines. Duterte said he would be willing to have an "open forum" with those who would want his administration investigated.
Among the questions he would ask, particularly to the UN rapporteur, would be the name of the first victim of the alleged extrajudicial killings, where, what, and how the killing was done.
Duterte has became irked with the international bodies for criticizing him over the alleged extrajudicial killings.
Duterte has explained his order to the policemen to kill drug suspects was for those who would violently resist arrest and would place the law enforcers' lives into danger.
Over 3,000 illegal drug suspects have been killed since the Duterte assumed office on June 30. Most of those killed were allegedly perpetrated by so-called vigilante groups. Celerina Monte
