Regional police chief Elmer Beltejar said police were patrolling near the house of Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.in the central town of Albuera when they were fired upon by the mayor’s bodyguards.
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Duterte said he was also offering soldiers and police his “official and personal guarantee” of immunity from prosecution for killings undertaken in the performance of their duties.
The clash came a day after Espinosa surrendered to national police chief Ronald dela Rosa.
In his speech, Duterte said there were as many as 600,000 people connected to the drug trade in the country, including both dealers and users, and blamed the high number on the complicity of “government personnel” who are “into the (illegal drug trade)”. Dela Rosa has warned that the younger Espinosa “will die” if he elects to shoot it out with the police.
This is Duterte’s latest move in his war against drugs, which has already left more than 400 suspected dealers and pushers dead and more than 4,400 arrested in a month since he took office.
“UNODC stands ready to further engage with the Philippines and all countries to bring drug traffickers to justice with the appropriate legal safeguards in line with worldwide standards and norms, and promote prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration approaches based in evidence, science, public health and human rights”, Fedotov said.
“If that’s the only way to try to scare me, by impeachment, go ahead”, Duterte said. “It’s a war, it’s not a crisis”.
“I am a human being”.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won the election by a landslide in May.
On Friday, Duterte reiterated his “shoot-to-kill” order against drug dealers resisting arrest.
In response to public outcry questioning the ethics of his methods, according to official transcripts released by the presidential palace, he said: “I don’t care about human rights, believe me”.
The Philippines is solving its drug problem – by killing people.
Human Rights Watch, Stop Aids and International HIV/Aids Alliance are among more than 300 civil society groups that have signed joint letters to the International Narcotics Control Board and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, calling on them to break their silence over the crackdown.
“We are calling on the United Nations drug control bodies to publicly condemn these atrocities in the Philippines”.
Philippine Sen. Leila M. De Lima, in a speech Tuesday decried what she called the “do-it- yourself justice” system under the Duterte.
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“We must call for the accountability of state actors responsible for this terrifying trend in law enforcement, and the investigation of killings perpetrated by the vigilante assassins”, she said.
