“It’s a pandemic”, said Duterte, a former mayor of Davao, where he built a reputation for his crime-busting style that allegedly involved extrajudicial killings.
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Senators Leila de Lima, who led the commission previously, has sought a Senate investigation of the killings but has faced opposition from Duterte’s political allies. And on Friday morning, furious after visiting a town where suspected drug dealers shot a police chief in the chest, Duterte told reporters that he had given police orders to shoot to kill when they come across anyone they believe to be involved in drug trade. “They should have due process, presumption of innocence”, he said.
The two operated under a certain “Marimar” and distributed narcotics in Quiapo, Dela Rosa said Molok and Abinal operated under a certain “Marimar” and distributed drugs in Manila, Caloocan and Cavite from 2000 to 2002.
Police figures showed this week that 402 drug suspects had been killed since Duterte was sworn in at the end of June. “Or else, I will order the entire armed forces of the Philippines to hunt you”, he warned.
About 800 people have been killed since Duterte won a landslide election in May. “I give you 24 hours or I will whack you and dismiss you from the service”.
He said government officials who use their positions to engage in a trade that wrecks the lives of many Filipinos were first on his list.
Duterte permitted police officers to enact the order and said, “For as long as it is done in the performance of the duty by the police and soldiers, that’s my responsibility”. More than 300 organizations involved in issues related to drug production, trafficking and use have appealed to global drug-control agencies to help stop the killings and to tell Duterte that they “do not constitute acceptable drug control measures”.
The president added, however, that he was sure that some of them had been “salvaged”, which is local slang for extrajudicial killings.
“These NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that are complaining to the United Nations, this is none of their business”, he retorted.
“I’m now invoking the Geneva Conventions”.
The latest worldwide figure to weigh in against the manner that the Duterte government carries out its anti-crime drive is industrialist, philanthropist and social entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, who wrote in his blog that that kind of campaign “is not the answer” to the drug menace.
“The Filipino is crying for justice” from crimes committed by drug dependents, he said.
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Mr Fedotov said that condoning extrajudicial killings did nothing to help solve problems caused by illegal drug use, or provide a “people-centred and evidence-based approach” to drugs control.
