DEFENDING his bloody drug war in which thousands of drug suspects have been killed, President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday night insisted that it was his duty to kill people involved in the illegal drug trade and again took a swipe at human rights groups that have criticized his campaign.
“It’s my duty to destroy people who will destroy my country. It’s a matter of principle for me, and a matter of my sense of duty,” the President said in a chance interview at Davao City.
Duterte said that those whom he wanted to kill were the drug users who endanger the future of civilians and the youth.
“If you destroy my country, I will kill you. What is wrong with that? If I tell the world, “Do not destroy the young people of my country.” For heaven’s sake, tell me what is wrong with that statement?” he said.
“Can you find a law which says I cannot utter those words in public to protect the Filipino nation? That’s what the human rights groups have used against me,” he said.
On Wednesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said that Duterte “unleashed a human rights calamity” through his “murderous ‘war on drugs’, drug-related overcrowding of jails, and the harassment and prosecution of drug war critics.”
HRW’s Asia director Phelim Kine called Duterte a “boisterous instigator for an unlawful killing campaign” even as he had promised to protect human rights when he took office last year.
“Duterte has supported and incited ‘drug war’ killings while retaliating against those fearless enough to challenge his assault on human rights,” Kine said.
Saying that he won’t “throw the country for the dogs,” Duterte waged his controversial drug war that has resulted in the death of 3,151 from July 1, 2016 to June 13, 2016 alone, according to government statistics.
Official data from the Philippine National Police have also pegged the total number of homicide cases at 9,432 from July 2016 to March 2017.
Of this number, 1,847 deaths were said to be drug-related, while 1,894 were not. The remaining 5,691 cases, or about 60 percent of the total figure, were still under investigation.
Duterte’s anti-narcotics drive has also resulted in a 26.45-percent drop in the estimated total drug market, and 28.57-percent reduction in index crime, according to PNP data.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Friday claimed success in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.
In a news briefing at Davao City, PDEA Director-General Isidro Lapeña said the efforts of the inter-agency committee on anti-illegal drugs, created through Executive Order No. 15, was successful.
“The purpose of that inter-agency is to unify all the efforts of all agencies concerned and then integrate and synchronize all actions and all the strategies against illegal drugs. I would say that we are successful,” Lapeña said.
He said, however, that there is a need to go deeper into the barangays to stop the drug menace.
Since Duterte took office a year ago, Lapeña said that they were able to confiscate more than 2,446 kilograms of illegal drugs worth P12.62 billion. Some 1,308,078 drug suspects had surrendered during the same time.
The number of drug suspects killed in legitimate operations was 3,171.
The PDEA chief reported that his agency conducted 64,397 anti-drug operations, which was 77 percent higher compared to the 36,466 operations of the previous administration.
Some 86,984 drug personalities were arrested, a 364 percent increase compared to those arrested in the previous administration.
Lapeña pointed out that the barangay officials have also been warned of possible liability for neglect of duty if they refuse to help in the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign.
The PDEA said a high 97.3 percent of Metro Manila barangays were affected by illegal drugs.
The region least affected by the drug menace was the Cordillera Administrative Region at 3.49 percent, Lapeña said.
A year after the war on drugs started, PDEA said 3,677 out of 42,036 barangays in the country have been declared clear of illegal drugs.
In the year since Duterte took office, the PDEA has seized 2,446 kilos of shabu, Lapeña said.
Lapeña said that the government is winning its war on illegal drugs with a total of 19,068 drug personalities apprehended including 302 government workers.
“The total value of drugs seized was P82.52 billion compared to the P4.8 billion in the previous year. This is a 283 percent increase,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government has signed an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to cooperate in anti-drug operations.
The protocol of cooperation includes the conduct of anti-illegal drugs operations and related activities in MILF-held areas. With Rio N. Araja and F. Pearl A. Gajunera
