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President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected the request of United Nations special rapporteur on summary executions to lift the government’s preconditions for her planned visit to investigate the alleged extra-judicial killings in the country.

In a media interview during his visit to wounded soldiers in Western Mindanao Command last Saturday, Duterte said he could not accept the proposal of UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard because he wants to ask her publicly on the result of her probe.

“No. I want it discussed in public so she can state her case...then I can refute her,” he said.

“Because I will just ask her, where did you get that - what extra-judicial killing?” he added.

Duterte said the UN and other organizations who keep on criticizing his war on drugs do not understand how law enforcement works in the Philippines.

“I’ve been very open about everything. I said, my order is to destroy. They do not understand the law enforcement and the president. My orders to the police even the military… is to destroy the apparatus, it includes the tangible even the people,” he said.

He clarified that he is not ordering the police for a punitive action of the drug suspects.

“If it is only 50,000 or 10,000 (drug users), that’s okay. But four million, they (critics) cannot seem to grasp the reality of it all even at the start,” he said.

It was reported that Callamard sent the Philippine government a letter dated December 15 suggesting to rather hold a standard private debriefing on her findings which could be followed by a joint press conference.

"This press briefing would be an opportunity for me to introduce briefly my preliminary findings and for the President to offer his own analysis, reply or rebuttal. Such a format would exclude debate between us, but allow the President to make immediately public his initial reactions to my preliminary findings should he so choose, and for me to uphold the principles that must guide my mission," she said.

The special rapporteur explained the conditions imposed by the government could contravene both the spirit and the letter of the code of conduct and is not in line with the working methods of Special Procedures.

The government preconditions sent to UN special rapporteur include a public debate with Duterte and for Callamard to take an oath before answering questions from government officials. Ella Dionisio/DMS