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Philippine president names Cayetano foreign secretary

Wednesday, 10 May 2017 6:12 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 10 May 2017 6:13 PM ]

Philippine Senator Alan Peter Cayetano speaks during the universal periodic review of the Philippines by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on May 8, 2017 at the UN offices in Geneva. (Photo by AFP)

A Philippine senator who is a staunch defender of President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody crackdown on illegal drugs has been named the country's foreign secretary.

Duterte told reporters Wednesday before flying to Cambodia to attend the World Economic Forum on ASEAN that he had appointed Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to the position.

Cayetano, 46, a lawyer and former member of the House of Representatives who was first elected to the Senate 10 years ago, lost a race for vice president last year when he ran as Duterte's running mate. He then returned to his unfinished term at the Senate but continued his impassioned defense of Duterte.

On Monday, he stood up for Duterte against international criticism at the UN human rights review in Geneva. He accused the Philippine media and the president's critics of spreading "alternative facts" that have been repeated by Western media regarding the thousands of suspected drug dealers and addicts killed in the "war on drugs."

This handout photo taken on May 10, 2017 and released by the Presidential Photo Division (PPD) shows Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivering his speech prior to his departure for Cambodia at Manila international airport. (Photo by AFP)

Detained Sen. Leila De Lima, a Duterte critic who had launched an investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings, said that the audience at the UN Human Rights Council cannot be fooled like "paid trolls in cyberspace" and the Philippine delegation cannot "pull off a magic trick" to hide Duterte's record of human rights abuses.

"Cayetano's performance was a master-class in innovative defense of the indefensible," said Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Phelim Kine "But it can't negate data that shows the drug war has killed more than 7,000 people since July, mostly poor urban Filipinos."

Cayetano replaces Acting Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, a career diplomat who temporarily occupied the post after Duterte's first appointee, Perfecto Yasay, was rejected by Congress after his flip-flopping statements that he was once a US citizen.

(Source: AP)

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