Duterte, Philippine President, Links 150 Public Servants to Drugs
MANILA — The Philippines’
tough-talking new president, Rodrigo Duterte, publicly linked scores of
judges, mayors, lawmakers, military personnel and police officers to
the illegal drug trade on Sunday and gave them 24 hours to surrender for
investigation or be “hunted” down.
Mr.
Duterte last week rejected calls from international rights groups to
observe due process in the war on drugs he has declared, after a photo
of a drug addict slain by vigilantes made it to the front pages and
became a symbol for the bloody campaign.
“I
ordered the listing, I ordered the validation. I’m the one reading it,
and I am the sole person responsible for these all,” he said in a
nationally televised speech at a naval base in the south, referring to
the roughly 150 individuals he mentioned by name.
He
said they “are hereby ordered relieved” of their duties, stressing that
he was only fulfilling a campaign promise to be “harsh.” Some of those
on his list were local politicians whom he said he knew personally.
“I’m
ordering the national police chief to lift police supervision and
cancel any and all private arms that are licensed to these mayors I
mentioned,” he said. “They are all canceled. Go out naked to the world
and show how crooked you are.”
He
also told the armed forces leadership to cooperate with the police to
account for all of their men and to cancel the licenses and permits of
their weapons as of Sunday night.
“All
of you judges or whatever, you report to the Supreme Court. Policemen,
you report to the police chief. And army, to the chief of staff. You do
not do that, I will order the armed forces of the Philippines and the
entire P.N.P. to hunt for you,” he said, using the initials of the
Philippine National Police.
He
did not say on what evidence he had based his list, acknowledging that
“it might be true, it might not be true,” but he hit back at groups that
had cautioned him against trampling on individual rights. He said that
should those he named be charged in court, then they would receive “due
process.”
“Due process has nothing to do with my mouth,” Mr. Duterte said. “There are no proceedings here, no lawyers.”
The
populist leader said he wanted the Philippine people, especially those
who had voted for him in May, to know what was happening in the country.
He said he did not care what the people would say and dared politicians
critical of him to remove him from office.
“It’s very important for the people to know the state of things or conditions in this country. That is my sworn duty,” he said.
Stressing
that the drug problem in the Philippines had reached “pandemic”
proportions, Mr. Duterte reiterated that he was willing to sacrifice his
life and the presidency knowing that he had served the public.
He
said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency had said that three million
of the 100 million Filipinos were hooked on drugs and that 92 percent
of villages in metropolitan Manila were “contaminated with drug use.”
He
said official figures had put the number of Filipinos in the “pusher
and user” category at 600,000, and blamed that on government personnel
who were involved with drugs.
He
also called on members of rights groups and on agencies affiliated with
the United Nations to come to the Philippines and prove him wrong, and
promised police officers that he had their back if they were faced with
human rights charges in connection with carrying out their duties.
Mr.
Duterte recalled that when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao,
his standing order to the police was to be quick on the draw and shoot
alleged perpetrators on sight.
“I
told police then that I will kick them if they are writhing in pain if I
see them get shot. Why were you beaten to the draw? That ain’t the way.
Illegal? No, of course not,” he said.
Mr.
Duterte’s tough stance on crime has led to Davao, his hometown, being
described as one of the safest cities in the Philippines, a country
where crime has become pervasive and where armed groups, including
communist rebels and Muslim separatists, proliferate.
More
than 400 people suspected of dealing drugs have been killed, in police
encounters or by vigilantes, in the month since Mr. Duterte took office.
About 600,000 other people have surrendered to the police.
In
a statement issued after Mr. Duterte spoke, Franklin M. Drilon,
president pro-tempore of the Senate and a former justice secretary,
said, “I strongly support President Duterte’s antidrug campaign, but due
process and the rule of law must be dutifully upheld.”
“As
a lawyer and former justice secretary,” he said, “I urged the president
that if there is evidence that these officials were involved in the
drug trade, he should immediately charge them administratively or in
court. There should be no shortcuts.”
“We
should allow due process and the rule of law to take its course,” Mr.
Drilon said. “Charges must be filed if evidence warrants it, so that the
accused will be given the opportunity to defend themselves and clear
their names. Let the chips fall where they may.”
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