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A Filipino senator is defending President Rodrigo Duterte's human rights record, saying his government always "seeks to uphold the rule of law" in the face of claims that it supports deadly vigilante justice.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano came before the U.N.'s Human Rights Council equipped with a slide show and video excerpts of previous comments by Duterte about the Philippines' fight against illegal drug trafficking.

Cayetano was speaking Monday at a review of Philippines human rights record at the council, part of a process known as the Universal Periodic Review of all 193 U.N. member states.

Human Rights Watch has urged the U.N. to denounce the Philippines' "war on drugs" that it said has left over 7,000 suspected drug dealers and users dead since Duterte took office in June.