Speaking to media afterwards, Duterte said the agreement means “that there will be some interdiction by their Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines and that is not really a warning but just a statement that we have made a decision to end this problem once and for all”.
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As two of the largest archipelagos in the world, the two leaders recognized the value of maritime cooperation between the Philippines and Indonesia. Waseso likewise expressed potentially unsafe contempt for suspected drug dealers by stating that their lives were “meaningless”.
“The life of a dealer is meaningless”, Waseso said Tuesday, because a dealer “carries out mass murder”.
Asked how he will explain the killings to Obama, he said: “You must be respectful. We all will do our parts”, said President Duterte.
Ang Tjeon Ming, founder of Jakarta-based Mayapada Group, who visited Taipei earlier this week, said that Indonesia began trading with Taiwan earlier than it did with China, and that it is reasonable for high-paying Taiwan to cooperate with Indonesia, which provides huge low-priced labor resources. “Our punishments have to be in accordance with our law and with national and worldwide standards”, said spokesman Slamet Pribadi.
The President said he did not consider the case criminal and believed that the Indonesians had been duped and victimized by a scam. The most recent Philippine National Police data shows that from July 1, when Duterte took office, to September 4, police killed an estimated 1,011 suspected “drug pushers and users.”
Thailand has also for years been tough on drugs but its soaring prison population has recently prompted a rethink and the downgrading of meth from a Category 1 drug to reduce numbers in jail.
The war against illegal drugs initiated by President Rodrigo R. Duterte is getting positive feedback from other Asian countries.
“We are not butchers who just kill people for no apparent reason”, reads one page of the booklet, citing the Philippines’ feisty national police chief, Ronald Dela Rosa.
Duterte, on his first foreign bilateral trip since winning power in May elections, said the two sides had committed to take “all necessary steps” to ensure maritime security.
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He said he would provide NT$100 million (US$3.2 million) to support training programs for young Taiwanese and promote exchanges with their Indonesian counterparts.
