Abella says Duterte, Australian FM differ in “perspective” on human rights issue

March 21, 2017

Malacanang insisted on Tuesday there was no contradiction on the statements of President Rodrigo Duterte and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop regarding human rights issue. The only difference was in "perspective," said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella in a statement. He was referring to the claim of Duterte during his meeting with Bishop in Davao City last week that they never talked about human rights issue. Duterte even said Australia’s top diplomat was courteous enough that they never discussed the matter. . But Bishop reportedly said she conveyed Australian and international concerns with respect to extrajudicial killings and the importance of human rights and the rule of law. Duterte has been criticized for his bloody war on illegal drugs, which already resulted to the death of more than 7,000 people. "Since they had a productive dialogue which emphasized possible areas of constructive cooperation on the war against illegal drugs, PRRD (Duterte) did not deem it sufficient to mention as having been discussed," Abella said. He noted the meeting between Duterte and Bishop was positive and just affirmed the growing Philippine-Australia relations. (Celerina Monte/DMS)