Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 24) — Malacañang is setting aside a State Department report citing drug-related extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, saying it was inconsistent with remarks previously made by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In a press briefing on Monday, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the report released on Saturday was different from what Trump told President Rodrigo Duterte in a meeting in Manila on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit last November.

"I personally heard the discussion," Roque said. "I think I heard words from President Trump praising President Duterte, including the war on drugs. If I'm not mistaken, President Trump said he (Duterte) knows what he's doing in the Philippines."

The Spokesman expressed confusion about the discrepancy, saying he did not know how to reconcile the report with Trump's opinion.

"But for now, we are going by the statements of President Trump that we all heard from the mouth of President Trump," the official stressed.

Roque was unsure if acting Secretary of State, John J. Sullivan had reviewed the latest country report on the Philippines, since he assumed the post vacated by Rex Tillerson in March.

"I was really lost on how to read it," Roque said, referring to the portion of the report that said extrajudicial killings were the chief human rights concern in the Philippines.

The report that the spate of killings rose "with the onset of the anti-drug campaign in 2016" and continuing into 2017. It also noted that Duterte's decision to put the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) at the helm of the drug war in place of the national police, "prompted a drop in reported extrajudicial killings."

Since the agency took over the controversial campaign in October, PDEA said 4,075 individuals had been killed in anti-illegal drug operations as of March 20. During the six month period, there have only been 169 drug-related deaths compared to 3,906 — or an average of 279 a month — when the Philippine National Police led the drive.

The annual U.S. report, "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017," documents the status of human rights and worker rights in nearly 200 countries and territories in the world.