We consider Amnesty International (AI) Report 2021-2022 as simply a cut-and-paste collection of recycled issues and arguments used by perennial detractors and critics of the Duterte Administration.

However, in keeping with our commitment to remain open to multi-stakeholder engagements, we ask AI to sit down with government to clarify whatever concerns them, valid issues or otherwise. Offhand, we urge them to engage with the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat so that matters are properly discussed and resolved.

Sadly, AI’s reports are never vetted with the Philippine government if only to authenticate their information. The absence of such vetting relegates AI’s report to a mere false rehash. And that especially includes its false narratives on the current government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign and issues surrounding Maria Ressa and Senator Leila de Lima, all of which have been previously answered.

Sadly, without the benefit of fact-checking, AI even referred government’s COVID-19 response as “mishandling,” which is far from the truth as all regions in the Philippines are presently at minimal risk case classification.

In all this, let it not be missed out, especially by AI, that the Philippines’ election to a fifth term in the United Nations Human Rights Council is a recognition by this global body of the Philippine government’s faithful adherence to promoting, protecting, and fulfilling the human rights of the Filipino people.