President of Philippines attending a ceremony at the customs yard in Manila on Feb 6, 2018, to crush luxury vehicles after they were seized for being smuggled into the country without paying import duty.<\/p>\n
“Doesn’t mince his words either.Doesn’t care about what the hypocrites of the West say . Love him or hate him you vote for what will really happen not zvesweet nothings empty promises by cheap politicians. Cowards who fear saying the truth .Better to know that if I am drug dealing if he comes in I will be killed .I can then stop or expect to be killed.As simple as that. Very good move. After all drug dealers are ruining lives .Same should happen to corrupt government officials” Said sisi Vee.<\/p>\n
On June 30 2016, the world held its breath as Rodrigo Duterte was elected president of the Philippines with nearly two fifths of the vote. Here was a man who had joked openly about rape, called Pope Francis a \u201cson of a whore,\u201d and has casually mentioned how much he likes taking Viagra.<\/p>\n
One of Duterte\u2019s most extreme election campaign promises was to rid the Philippines of drug users and dealers.<\/p>\n
“If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you. I have no patience, I have no middle ground, either you kill me or I will kill you idiots,” Duterte said at a campaign rally.<\/p>\n
One year on, how has Duterte\u2019s war on drugs panned out?<\/p>\n
Drug war .A policeman holds his weapon as people pass by during a drug raid in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.<\/p>\n
The death toll<\/p>\n
According to Human Rights Watch, security forces and \u201cunidentified gunmen\u201d have killed at least 7,000 suspected drug users and dealers since July 1, 2016. Of those killings, 3,116 have been carried out by police. The death toll in one year under Duterte\u2019s leadership is higher than all of those killed while dictator Ferdinand Marcos was in power between 1972 and 1981.<\/p>\n
How are people being killed?<\/p>\n
Men and women have been summarily executed while carrying out drug deals, and others have been dragged from their homes and shot in the street. All were allegedly involved in the drugs trade, although some relatives and friends maintain the victims\u2019 innocence, saying police were mistaken.<\/p>\n
Human rights groups have alleged that police are behind the vigilantes killing the majority of drug users and abusers. The president has publicly supported citizens killing drug addicts, saying \u201cIf you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.\u201d In March, Duterte even suggested that unemployed people should be recruited as vigilantes.
\nHow has the world reacted?<\/p>\n
Duterte\u2019s war on drugs has been widely condemned by the West. The European Parliament issued a resolution in March denouncing the “high number of extrajudicial killings” that have taken place under Duterte\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
The United Nations\u2019 special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, has said she is eager to carry out an investigation into human rights violations in the Philippines but Duterte will not allow her to do so until she agrees to a public debate with him, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n
While Duterte has dismissed his critics in the international community as \u201ccrazies,\u201d he claims to have received praise from U.S. President Donald Trump. After the Philippine president called the latter to wish him luck after his inauguration, Duterte said in a statement: \u201cHe [Trump] was quite sensitive also to our worry about drugs. And he wishes me well … in my campaign and he said that … we are doing it as a sovereign nation, the right way.\u201d
\nWhen will the violence end?<\/p>\n
The war on drugs is ongoing, although it has been recently eclipsed by the ISIS insurgency in the south of the country in Marawi.<\/p>\n
Duterte has said: \u201cMy campaign on drugs will not end, until the end of my term six years from now when every drug pusher is [killed],\u201d Duterte told a crowd in December 2016, making a throat-slitting gesture, The Guardian reported.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Philippine drug enforcement agency chief Isidro Lape\u00f1a claimed the drugs war has been “successful.” He said that 1,308,078 drug suspects had surrendered and 2.246 tons of illegal drugs had been seized by authorities since Duterte took office.<\/p>\n
Rights groups have condemned the killings, and Amnesty International has said the war on drugs is actually a war on the poor.<\/p>\n
Source : Online<\/p>\n
VIDEO<\/p>\n