Filtered By: Topstories
News
SONA 2018

Duterte: War on drugs will be relentless, chilling


President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday his centerpiece campaign against illegal drugs, which is being attributed to thousands of unexplained killings, is "far from over.”

“The illegal drugs war will not be sidelined. Instead it will be as relentless and chilling, if you will, as on the day it began,” Duterte said during his third State of the Nation Address before a joint session of Congress at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

“These drug dealers know fully well that their business is against the law. They know the consequences of their criminal acts, especially when caught in flagrante delicto and they violently resist arrest. They know that illegal drugs waste away lives, dysfunctionalize families, and ruin relationships.”

Duterte then took aim at critics of his controversial policy.

“Sadly, I have yet to hear really howls of protest from the human rights advocates and church leaders against drug-lordism, drug dealing and drug pushing as forceful and vociferous as the ones directed against the alleged errant [law] enforcers in the fight against this social scourge,” Duterte said.

Government data showed that 4,354 suspects have died in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs compared to 147,802 that have been arrested in 102,630 anti-drug operations conducted from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2018.

Criticisms against the anti-illegal drugs campaign had reached the International Criminal Court, which opened in February a preliminary examination on allegations that Duterte and other senior administration officials have committed crimes against humanity due to the increasing number of killings of drug personalities.

In March, Duterte announced the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Hague-based tribunal, citing the “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous” attacks against him and his administration and the alleged attempt of the ICC prosecutor to place him under its jurisdiction.

He also urged other nations to get out of the ICC.

“If you think that I can be dissuaded from continuing this fight because of [your] demonstrations, your protests, which I find, by the way, misdirected, then you got it all wrong,” Duterte said. — RSJ, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT