Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s extra-judicial killing of drug criminals continues unabated, and he has vowed to escalate his government’s tyrannical war on drugs.
Duterte stated Thursday that the country’s massive drug problem is a threat to national security, and that he intends to continue his war on drugs with military assistance.
In his speech, Duterte said that he will not declare martial law, but that he will kill more citizens if necessary in an attempt to quell the long-standing drug problem.
“You bleed for those sons of a b*****es,” Duterte said, in reference to drug criminals. “How many? Three thousand? I will kill more if only to get rid of drugs.”
7080 drug users and dealers have been killed in the Philippines since Duterte became their leader, and Duterte has previously stated that he intends to continue his war on drugs until the end of his term in 2022.
Amnesty International reported Wednesday that police officers in the Phillipines were being paid by the government for killing drug suspects. Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Director Tiran Hassan criticized Duterte’s administration for the lives it has taken.
“This is not a war on drugs, but a war on the poor,” said Hassan. “Often on the flimsiest of evidence, people accused of using or selling drugs are being killed for cash in an economy of murder.”
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also warned about the repercussions of a militarized drug war. HRW director Phelim Kline stated that the use of “military personnel for civilian policing anywhere heightens the risk of unnecessary or excessive force and inappropriate military tactics.” Kline also condemned the military’s “long history of masking extrajudicial killings,” and drew parallels between said killings and police anti-drug efforts.
Duterte is known for both ordering violent acts to be taken upon his own people, and personally committing those acts. Duterte has personally killed multiple people, and once threw a man out of a helicopter.
Photo Credit: Edwin Espejo
Nicholas Amato
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