Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at a media briefing Sunday.
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An EU statement urged President Duterte to put an end to the “extrajudicial killings” and launch an alternative campaign in line with worldwide human rights laws.
NEWS BRIEF The Philippine politician at the head of an investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, and who presented a man last week who claimed Duterte ran a hit squad as mayor of Davao city, was removed Monday from her position as head of the Senate’s justice committee. So far, De Lima has been kicked out of the Senate committee chairmanship for alleged abuse of authority and has been replaced by Senator Richard Gordon.
Last week the European Union parliament have said “they are anxious about extreme number of people were killed during police operations in order to intensify anti-crime and anti-drug campaign”.
Senator Leila de Lima, Duterte’s most vocal critic, has questioned the president’s crackdown that resulted in more than 3,500 deaths, many of them caused by vigilantes.
Mr. Duterte singled out France and the United Kingdom for joining the U.S.in attacking countries in the Middle East in recent years and said history books were littered with examples of atrocities committed by Europeans.
The tough-talking former city mayor cited the recent shooting to death of a black man in the USA and the involvement of European countries in military actions in the Middle East.
Now EU officials have urged the merciless president to “end to the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings” and respect humans rights.
The cover – which reads “Night falls on the Philippines: The tragic cost of President Duterte’s war on drugs – features a striking image of the dead body of a suspected drug dealer”.
President Duterte invites the European Union to consider that even if accusations against him are true, those whom he killed had killed more. I did not have any idea that there were hundreds of thousands already in the drug business. De Lima’s ouster means she can no longer control the senate hearing on the issue. Sen.
Duterte, whose bloody campaign on drugs has drawn the ire of global communities, on Tuesday used the “F” word not once but twice when commenting on the European body expressing concerns over his government’s hardline stance. I’m telling them, ‘F**k you.
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Duterte was elected in May on the back of violent anti-drug rhetoric that promised to wipe out the country’s illicit drug trade in three to six months. He recently said he underestimated the magnitude of the drug problem and will extend the crackdown by another half year.
