Rodrigo Duterte revoked the gun licenses of anyone on the list and advised them to turn themselves in by Monday for an investigation to clear their names.
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President Duterte has disclosed that the names in the government’s list of drug personalities include not only mayors, but also members of the Judiciary and Congress.
More than 400 suspected drug dealers have been killed by police across the Philippines since Duterte took over, officials say.
Dela Rosa reprimanded the police officers on Duterte’s list, threatening to kill them if they continued to protect drug traders and resell seized drugs. “But I am angry now”, Mr Duterte said, addressing those on his list.
The so-called “Duterte effect” has seen a massive spike in extrajudicial killings of those suspected of involvement in the drug trade. “I give you 24 hours or I will whack you and dismiss you from the service”.
President Rodrigo Duterte reveals at least 157 names of those allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade during his visit to the Naval Station Felix Apolinario in Panacan, Davao City on Sunday, August 7, 2016. He promised to assume full responsibility if anyone was mistakenly included.
In a letter, Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Monday told the president the court alone had the right to discipline judges.
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)”. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos were addicted, he said.
In a statement posted online, Catholic leader Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, condemned the latest killings, saying, “I am in utter disbelief”.
For his part, Col. Edgard A. Arevalo, chief of the Public Affairs Office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said “the [AFP] Commander in Chief has already ordered their relief from whatever positions the named AFP personnel are holding and directed them to report to the Chief of Staff”.
Despite criticism from foreign and local human rights organizations and even UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, surveys have shown Duterte enjoys wide public support.
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“To safeguard the role of the judges as the protector of constitutional rights, I would caution them very strongly against “surrendering” or making themselves physically accountable to any police officer in the absence of any duly-issued warrant of arrest that is pending”, she said.
