A THREE-CHILD rule is needed to improve economic growth, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte told his constituents Monday during his last flag-raising ceremony as mayor of Davao City.
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He said tens of thousands of people would die, with security forces being given shoot-to-kill orders.
Duterte, whose inauguration will take place on Thursday, has clashed with the country’s bishops over the death penalty – which Duterte wants to extend to cover crimes including vehicle theft – and over the new president’s style. He has responded by offering government-sanctioned bounties available to civilians if they killed the drug lords placing a bounty on his head.
Meanwhile, police said recently the number of smugglers killed since May 9, when Duterte was elected the country’s President, has increased 200 per cent.
The United Nations’ human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, this month urged Duterte not to reintroduce the death penalty, while criticizing other elements of the planned war on crime.
“When they describe or characterize a human rights violator, these fools make it appear that the people you kill are saints, as if they are pitiful or innocent”, he said.
Duterte said that he is ready to take on the Catholic Church, in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, because the Church’s stand on contraception is “no longer realistic”.
The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006 following fierce opposition from the Catholic Church, the religion of 80 percent of Filipinos. “If I couldn’t convince you to stop, I’ll have you killed… if you’re into drugs, I’m very sorry”.
“If they give you P50 million, dagdagan ko yan, P60 million”, he said.
In an interview with Manila Bulletin, Dela Rosa said that those who want him and Duterte dead have already been identified.
“They will all be demoted if something happens to me”, Duterte stressed. You always use that to scare them.
He said policemen should not be afraid to do their jobs and he would take care of them.
Duterte won the presidency by a wide margin in early May, campaigning on his record as mayor.
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“There will be no corruption”, he said, adding that if he learned that someone from his administration is involved in corruption, “I will just whisper to you to go”.
