UPDATE 1-Philippines' Duterte orders shunning of loans, grants from backers of UN drug war probe

* Orders pause "pending assessment of our relations"
* Resolution followed concern about huge death toll
* Duterte spokesman says no memo on loans issued
*

(Adds presidential spokesman denial paragraph 7, adds context
paragraph 11-13)
By Karen Lema
MANILA, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Philippines President Rodrigo
Duterte has instructed all departments and state-run firms to
halt negotiations and agreements on grants and loans from
countries that have backed a U.N. investigation into his bloody
war on drugs.
With 18 countries in favour, the United Nations Human Rights
Council approved a resolution in July to compile a comprehensive
report on Duterte's three-year crackdown, during which at least
6,700 people have been killed in what police say were shootouts
with drug dealers who resisted arrest. A document seen by Reuters, dated Aug. 27 and signed by
Duterte's Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, said all
agencies and state companies should suspend negotiations or
agreements "pending the assessment of our relations with these
countries".
Thousands of mostly urban poor drug users have also been
killed in the Philippines in addition to the official police
tally, many in mysterious circumstances. The growing toll led to
11 U.N. experts issuing a statement of concern in June about
what they called a "staggering" number of deaths during
Duterte's signature campaign. Human rights groups accuse police of systematic cover-ups
and summary executions of anyone associated with drugs, which
police deny.
"All concerned officials are DIRECTED to suspend
negotiations for and signing of loans and grant agreements with
the governments of the countries that co-sponsored and/or voted
in favour," the memo said.
Medialdea did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Duterte's spokesman and legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, said
"the president has not issued any memorandum suspending loans
and negotiation".
Panelo had previously called the resolution "grotesquely
one-sided, outrageously narrow, and maliciously partisan",
arguing that it lacked legitimacy because the 18 council members
who backed it was less than the 14 votes against and 15
abstentions combined.
Countries on the 47-member council that voted in favour of
the resolution include Britain, Australia, Spain, Denmark,
Iceland and Ukraine.
It is not the first time Duterte has taken a stand against
the international community over perceived criticism of his
anti-narcotics campaign.
He once threatened to pull the Philippines out of the United
Nations and publicly rejected 260 million euros ($286.91
million) of European Union development projects over remarks by
some European parliamentarians. It later emerged that the
projects were never stopped.
Last year, he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the
International Criminal Court, after it announced it was
conducting a preliminary examination into alleged crimes against
humanity.
It is not immediately clear how a halt on loans from the 18
countries would impact the Philippines.
Economic Planning Secretary, Ernesto Pernia, told Reuters in
a text message that "no infrastructure projects" would be
affected. "Only some ODA grants," he said, referring to Official
Development Assistance.
Though the Philippines rejects the resolution itself,
Duterte has not said he would deny U.N. representatives entry to
his country to investigate, if a request is made.
His foreign minister, Teodoro Locsin, last week said such a
request would be refused, calling the U.N. human rights experts
"bastards" who had already made up their minds. ($1 = 0.9062 euros)

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Catherine
Evans)