MANILA - Malacañang on Friday disputed the claim of Amnesty International (AI) that the Philippines has become a more dangerous place under President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque cited a Social Weather Stations survey showing a “record-low” 6.1 percent of Filipinos who said they had fallen victim to common crimes.

He also noted that Duterte remains popular among Filipinos, based on the President’s 88-percent approval rating in the latest Pulse Asia survey.

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Roque also denied that the government allowed unjustified killings under the heavily criticized war on drugs.

“We reiterate that the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs is conducted through legitimate police enforcement operations, and deaths arising from these are due to the drug personalities’ violent resistance to lawful apprehensions,” he said.

“As a member of the bar, the President has prosecuted murder as a capital offense. He, therefore, does not and will never condone extralegal killings, as he maintains zero tolerance for erring policemen who digress from standard protocols and abuse their power," said Roque on Duterte, a former prosecutor.

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In a statement ahead of Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address, AI Philippines Section Director Jose Noel Olano said the government’s human rights agenda “basically went on a downward spiral” after Duterte took office.

Olano said Duterte “shamelessly displayed” impunity and lack of accountability in almost all levels of his administration, failing to meet its basic job to protect the Filipino people including meeting their basic economic needs and civil liberties.

“What contributed to this was partly his (Duterte) resistance to recommendations put forward by more diverse sectors in lieu of the opinion of his few trusted advisors, and his shortsightedness in accepting criticism from the international community,” Olano said.

Olano also said the Duterte administration abandoned human rights values and principles, making the Philippines “a far more dangerous place.”

“It is not only his speeches about keeping our country safe that have become mere lip service but in his audacity to smear human rights, he has rolled back on hard-won human rights protections that are supposed to keep everyone safe, in the first place,” he said.

The organization also slammed the government for having “actively created a climate where anyone can kill or be killed, [and] the poor were the obvious prey but more recently even government officials.”

“This situation has given anyone a free rein to commit human rights abuses and violations with impunity where social and political division thrive, leading to greater potential for human rights violations,” Olano said.

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