By Genalyn Kabiling

Malacañang slammed United States Senator Bernie Sanders for his “shameful attempt” of criticizing the alleged human rights abuses in the country without verifying the information.

Sanders, a presidential contender in the 2020 US polls, merely echoed the allegations peddled by critics of the Duterte administration, according to Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo.

“Ang tingin ko rin na shameful attempt din sa parte niya na magbigay siya ng impormasyon na hindi naman niya na-validate [I think it was a shameful attempt on his part to give information that he did not validate],” Panelo said in a radio interview.

“Inuulit niya lang ang sinasabi ng mga kritiko na pine-peddle sa foreign news agencies na pini-print naman at pinaniniwalaan ninyo naman [He just repeated the statements of critics peddled in foreign news agencies that are printed. And you believe them],” he added.

Sanders recently took a swipe at the Duterte administration for its alleged human rights abuses, citing the crackdown on trade unionists. He tried to defend human rights amid the alleged “shameful attempt” to silence the freedom of the people.

“In recent years, we have seen abhorrent human rights abuses by the Philippine government. This repression of trade unionists is a shameful attempt to silence people’s rights and freedoms,” Sanders tweeted last Friday. “More than ever, we must stand on the side of global human rights,” he said, sharing a link to the online post from International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

The international group, in the article, had denounced the “new wave of police repression of Philippine trade unionists.” They mentioned the police raids on three offices of human rights and trade union organizations that resulted in the arrest and detention of 57 people.

Panelo, however, justified the police raids on the offices of left-leaning groups. He said the policemen must have obtained an intelligence report about suspected criminal activity in these areas.

“Kapag mayroong raid ang PNP, ibig sabihin mayroon sila intelligence report na gumagawa ng hindi tama ang mga organisasyon na yan na labag sa batas. otherwise, hindi ire-raid yan [When the PNP (Philippine National Police) conducts a raid, it means they have an intelligence report that the groups are doing something against the law. Otherwise, they won’t launch a raid],” he said.

Panelo said the concerned groups could always file a case against the policemen if believe that any law was broken in the raid.

“Kung mali naman ang raid, they can always go to court and sue them, and put them in jail , yung mga nagre-raid na mali [If there is something wrong with the raid, they can always go to court and sue them and put them in jail, those who wrongfully conducted the raid],” he said.