Philippines President calls for the Murder of Drug Addicts, 30 Killed since Thursday
'Go ahead & kill' drug addicts, Philippines president says
New Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who has recently declared "a bloody war” on drug cartels, has called on willing Filipinos to “go ahead and kill” drug addicts, amid concerns that “getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”
Duterte, who said during his campaign that some 100,000 criminals would die in his crackdown, their bodies dumped in Manila Bay, has been conspicuously deaf to criticism that he was promoting a “culture of death" in his native country.
After taking his oath inside the Malacanang presidential palace, Duterte, 71, continued his defiance and threats against drug traffickers in front of a crowd of some 500 people gathered in a Manila slum Thursday night.
"These sons of whores are destroying our children. I warn you, don't go into that, even if you're a policeman, because I will really kill you," the outspoken Philippines leader told the crowd, AFP reported.
"If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful," he added.
Setting up funeral parlors would help earn some money, Duterte noted.
"I assure you [that] you won't go bankrupt. If your business slows I will tell the police, 'Do it faster to help the people earn money.'"
During his speech at the presidential palace, Duterte highlighted that among the key problems that currently "bedevil" Philippines are "corruption, both in the high and low echelons in government, criminality in the streets and the rampant sale of illegal drugs in all strata of Philippines society and the breakdown of law and order."
Duterte warned that his fight against crime would be "relentless and sustained," pledging that it will remain within the boundaries of the law.
"As a lawyer and former prosecutor, I know the limits of the power and authority of the president. I know what is legal and what is not. My adherence to due process and rule of law is uncompromising," Duterte vowed.
Unsurprisingly, such rhetoric has not endeared Dutarte to local drug lords. Last month, they raised the bounty they had put on the president, the Manila Bulletin reported. Over $1 million has now been promised for the assassination of the new leader.
Duterte in his turn offered a reward of 5 million pesos ($108,000) for a drug lord “if he is dead,” urging the public to join his far-reaching anti-crime fight.
Documents released by WikiLeaks allege that Duterte, who was mayor of the southern city of Davao for over 22 years, has been linked with a vigilante group called the Davao Death Squad. According to Human Rights Watch, these “brutal death squads have claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people” during his tenure as mayor.
Source
Philippines police boast of 30 drug killings since Duterte was sworn in on Thursday
Hardline president’s ascension to office is followed by wave of shootings, prompting outcry over ‘serial summary executions of users and petty drug lords’
Thirty “drug dealers” have been killed since Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as Philippine president on Thursday, police said, announcing the seizure of nearly US$20m (£15m) worth of narcotics but sparking anger from a lawyers’ group.
Duterte won the election in May on a platform of crushing crime, but his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings have alarmed many who hear echoes of the country’s authoritarian past.
Oscar Albayalde, police chief for the Manila region, said five drug dealers were killed on Sunday in a gun battle with police in a shanty town near a mosque near the presidential palace.
“My men were about to serve arrest warrants when shots rang out from one of the houses in the area,” Albayalde told reporters, saying police returned fire and killed five men.
Four guns and 200 grams of crystal methamphetamine were recovered. Three other people were killed in other areas in Manila on Sunday and 22 were killed in four areas outside the capital.
More than 100 people have died - said to have been mostly suspected drug dealers, rapists and car thieves - in stepped up anti-crime police operations since the election on 9 May.
Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, said the killings must be halted.
“The drug menace must stop … Yet the apparent serial summary executions of alleged street drug users or petty drug lords which appear sudden, too contrived and predictable must also stop,” he said in a statement. “The two are not incompatible.“
In the north of the main island of Luzon, drug enforcement agents and police seized a shipment of 180kg (400lb) of “shabu” (methamphetamine) worth about 900m pesos ($19.23m) from either China or Taiwan, said national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said.
The shipment was unloaded at sea and brought to shore by small fishing boats before delivery to Manila’s Chinatown, he said.
On Sunday the Maoist-led New People’s Army rebels issued a statement supporting Duterte’s all-out war against drugs, saying it might conduct its own drug operations against soldiers, police and local officials.
Source
Hey mods! Sorry for double posting but I noticed this story hasn't been covered here yet.
"If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful." That whole speech he gave makes me physically ill.