Hostile foes

“Had he been given the chance, Catura said he wanted to convey to the group that they can always engage with the government and take advantage of legal mechanisms in the country.

How do the enemies of President Rody Duterte go about their international demonization campaign?

Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat Undersecretary Severo Catura, who is now in Geneva for the ongoing 42nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), had a first-hand encounter of the hypocrisy and bigotry of the yellows and the Reds who sponsor anything anti-Duterte abroad, obviously to raise donations from gullible Western groups and governments who swallow the detractors’ words hook, line and sinker.

A group led by local rights groups iDefend, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates and Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines was spreading in the annual UN meeting what they claim as a “human rights crisis” under Rody, again quoting the manufactured 27,000 extrajudicial deaths figure of coup plotter Antonio Trillanes IV.

Catura said he attended the sparsely-attended forum to know what were the grievances of the supposed rights advocates to include these as possible inputs to the presentation of the Philippines at the UN event.

What he heard at the forum shocked him since like-minded delegates traded unimaginable falsehoods against the government.

“I knew there would be the usual tirades, but I never expected the capacity of these non-government organization (NGO) panelists to spew the lies and deception at such level so unheard of and even with tears for good measure,” Catura said.

He identified himself as a government representative and had the chance to make brief comments on the status of the anti-illegal drugs campaign and the state’s protection of children being used by drug addicts and drug dealers, but with “a look of disdain” from the organizers.

Catura said he took out his phone to retrieve data from #RealNumbers, which keep track of incidents and data related to the anti-narcotics campaign “and prepared some notes,” as he readied to speak more lengthily to clarify issues raised in the forum.

He wanted to suggest in the forum that anti-Duterte groups should stop using the United Nations as a sounding board for lies “against the Philippines and the Filipino people.”

Had he been given the chance, Catura said he wanted to convey to the group that they can always engage with the government and take advantage of legal mechanisms in the country to address their alleged human rights crisis “before running to the UN like spoiled brats.”

Most of all, Catura said he would have countered the claim of a human rights crisis by telling the audience to “just go and visit the Philippines to find out” the truth about what is being bruited about in the symposium.

The discussions in the meeting are the same malevolence from critics abroad that turns off tourists from visiting the country, thus the just five million visits a year compared to Thailand’s 40 million arrivals yearly.

The moderator of the forum, however, cut Catura cold when he was starting his turn claiming that time had ran out on him.

It did not end there as after the meeting, a man from the audience accused Catura of recording the event through his mobile phone, which was during the period when the government official was trying to retrieve data.

The moderator then joined in and also confronted Catura, saying indeed he recorded the event. It then comes as a wonder why these critics of Rody would hold a public forum when they are so paranoid of being documented.

Catura said prior to the incident, the man who went after them called one of the officials accompanying him to the forum as a “fascist.”

He tried to reason with the bellicose individuals by showing them the data that he retrieved. “In summary, this is what we contend with while engaging with the UN. While gaining more allies to our cause of human rights in good governance, we continue to deal with NGO members, sadly Filipinos, who represent a miniscule group of oppositionists back home, but the loudest, whose main objective has always been to embarrass the country before the world,” Catura noted.

The experience of the UN official explains the penchant of the opponents of Rody to take their animosity abroad where they can spew venom against Duterte expecting everybody to believe them since those who listen don’t know any better.

The same arguments if made in the country would easily attract condemnation since it is not the situation obtained in reality.

Also, it is the same reason why Communist Party of the Philippines chairman Jose Maria Sison declined Rody’s invitation to return home and face the truth.