President Duterte said EU’s action was a result of guilty feelings over their atrocities committed in the past. Leila De Lima’s immediate reinstatement to signal its support for justice and human rights.
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Last month, a United Nations human rights investigator asked to be allowed to visit the Philippines to look into the abuses but the Duterte government swiftly rebuffed her. The government described the allegations as lies. “I will write a letter to invite them for an investigation”, he said in a televised speech during the inauguration of a power plant in Misamis Oriental province.
More than 3,000 people have been killed by the police and vigilantes since Duterte launched his brutal war on drugs.
More than 600,000 others, mostly drug users, have surrendered to authorities for fear they may be killed. “I will tell them f– you”.
It was on his anti-drugs message that Duterte won the presidency in May this year, along with the promise that he would, in three to six months, completely eradicate the drug menace in the Philippines.
During a press conference with local reporters in the city of Davao, the Philippine president raised his middle finger and said Tuesday: “I read the condemnation of the European Union against me”.
Days after his election win, Mr Duterte also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers, and has repeatedly pledged to protect police from prosecution over the killings. Maria Aurora Moynihan, 45, was shot by unknown attackers who left her by the side of a Manila street on Sep 10.
“Our job was to kill criminals like drug pushers, rapists, snatchers”.
The latest tally by the national police on the results of its anti-illegal drugs campaign showed that, from July 1 to September 18, 1,140 alleged drug offenders have died for supposedly fighting back.
In a speech in Davao late Monday, Duterte brushed off any possible investigations into his crime war, which has attracted strong worldwide criticism. Even the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon got branded a “fool” for meddling in Filipino internal policies.
“I have de Lima’s blessings”, Colangco said, when Congress members asked how he had smuggled contraband into the prison. “Go ahead, be my guest”, he said dismissively.
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On Thursday, he said his curses at European Union officials are borne out of frustration for their supposed lack of understanding of the drug “crisis” in the Philippines.
