Philippines new president tells citizens kill drug addicts
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, nicknamed “The Punisher,” has called for the executions of drug users as the latest measure in his unmerciful efforts to cut down crime.
“These sons of whores are destroying our children,” Duterte said earlier this month in a profanity-ridden speech in front of a crowd of 500 at a Manila slum, the Guardian 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 said.
Duterte, who has been called the “Trump” of the Philippines for his penchant for profanity, announced his severe crime-fighting measures a day after he was sworn in as president on June 30 with a promise that 100,000 would die in his war on drugs.
Within the first week of Duterte’s presidency, at least 72 suspected drug dealers were killed by police and vigilante groups in extrajudicial executions, according to a “Kill List” compiled by the Philippine Inquirer.
Police officers investigate the body of an alleged drug dealer, his face covered with packing tape and a placard reading "I'm a pusher", on a street in Manila on July 8.
The latest casualty was the death of Ariel Pitong Unay, a former Army officer and “top drug personality” in the northern town of Catarma, who was killed during a police buy-bust operation, the Inquirer reported.
Another suspected dealer was killed in Manila last week and left in the street with packing tape over his face and a cardboard sign that read “I’m a pusher” covering his chest.
The murders came after Duterte, 71, issued shoot-to-kill orders to security services, offered bounties for the bodies of drug traffickers and promised he would dump enough corpses in Manila Bay to “fatten all the fish there,” the Guardian reported.
At least, 952 confessed drug users and pushers have surrendered fearing for their lives, PhilStar reported.
The spate of state-sanctioned killings has caused outrage among humans rights groups, including human rights lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, the national chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group, who called the deaths a “nuclear explosion of violence.”
“Do we really want to give the man with the gun the power to judge who are criminals and to kill them? To decide who is bad and who is good, who deserves to live and who deserves to die?” he wrote in a blog post for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Human Rights Watch echoed Diokno’s concerns, calling for an investigation into the surge of killings.
"Human Rights Watch is concerned that President Duterte's electoral platform, which included repeated promises to kill those deemed to be criminals and drug dealers, may be interpreted by some as a legitimization of the unlawful concept of extrajudicial killings as an acceptable approach to crime control," said Phelim Kine, the group's Asia deputy director
Original story at
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-kill-drug-addicts-article-1.2709514
Another suspected dealer was killed in Manila last week and left in the street with packing tape over his face and a cardboard sign that read “I’m a pusher” covering his chest.
The murders came after Duterte, 71, issued shoot-to-kill orders to security services, offered bounties for the bodies of drug traffickers and promised he would dump enough corpses in Manila Bay to “fatten all the fish there,” the Guardian reported.
At least, 952 confessed drug users and pushers have surrendered fearing for their lives, PhilStar reported.
The spate of state-sanctioned killings has caused outrage among humans rights groups, including human rights lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, the national chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group, who called the deaths a “nuclear explosion of violence.”
“Do we really want to give the man with the gun the power to judge who are criminals and to kill them? To decide who is bad and who is good, who deserves to live and who deserves to die?” he wrote in a blog post for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Human Rights Watch echoed Diokno’s concerns, calling for an investigation into the surge of killings.
"Human Rights Watch is concerned that President Duterte's electoral platform, which included repeated promises to kill those deemed to be criminals and drug dealers, may be interpreted by some as a legitimization of the unlawful concept of extrajudicial killings as an acceptable approach to crime control," said Phelim Kine, the group's Asia deputy director
Original story at
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-kill-drug-addicts-article-1.2709514
MY OPINION
I'm sure I don't need to state the obvious here but I'm going to do it anyway. This man is a lunatic. Obviously, in the Philippines it is not understood addiction is a relapsing brain disease. This is the war on drugs on steroids being led by a maniac. We can see after 40 years of the war on drugs we have nothing to show but billions spent and mass incarcerations with addiction just getting worse.
This is a situation that is quite troublesome personally because right now my plans are to move to the Philippines in 2018. I'm not worried personally because this administration is targeting illegal drug users and my past problems were pharmaceutical and necessary which is the difference between addiction and chemical dependence, but if the attitude toward addiction is this barbaric and cruel who knows who could be targeted next.
I'm sure I don't need to state the obvious here but I'm going to do it anyway. This man is a lunatic. Obviously, in the Philippines it is not understood addiction is a relapsing brain disease. This is the war on drugs on steroids being led by a maniac. We can see after 40 years of the war on drugs we have nothing to show but billions spent and mass incarcerations with addiction just getting worse.
This is a situation that is quite troublesome personally because right now my plans are to move to the Philippines in 2018. I'm not worried personally because this administration is targeting illegal drug users and my past problems were pharmaceutical and necessary which is the difference between addiction and chemical dependence, but if the attitude toward addiction is this barbaric and cruel who knows who could be targeted next.
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