DRUG WAR. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte watches photos of some PHP1.482 billion worth of illegal drugs seized from recent joint operations in Quezon City, Valenzuela City, and Bulacan while presiding over a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang Park, Manila on Aug. 2, 2021. The joint operations resulted in the arrest of four high-value drug personalities and the death of one in an armed encounter. (Presidential photo by King Rodriguez)
MANILA – With only 10 months left in his term, President Rodrigo Duterte said it was the Filipino nation, and not him or his family, who benefited from his administration’s drug war.
Duterte made this remark during his pre-recorded Talk to the People on Monday night amid the human rights groups’ criticisms of the aggressive crackdown on illegal drugs.
He said even if the critics’ allegations of human rights violations linked to the drug war were true, Filipinos were still able to reap from its gains.
“Ipalagay na natin totoo ‘yang sinabi, ipagpalagay na natin totoo ‘yang sinabi ng human rights, p***** i** sinong nakinabang diyan? Ako? Ako ang nakinabang? Pamilya ko? Nakinabang sila diyan sa p***** i**** mga patay na ‘yan? Sino? Sinong nakinabang? Kayo, ang anak ninyo, ang bayan natin ang nakinabang (Let’s say what the human rights said are true, who benefited from it? Me? I benefited, my family? Did they benefit from those dead? Who benefited? You! Your children, our nation benefited),” he said.
Duterte said the anti-narcotics drive that he started in 2016 put him and his family’s lives at risk.
“Sino nalagay sa alanganin? Ako, pamilya ko, ‘yung buhay nila, gaganti ‘yang mga y*** na ‘yan. Eh hindi naman ako milyonaryo na may isa akong squad diyan sa likod nagbantay. Ako pa ang napoproblema ngayon, p***, ako. Ang nakinabang kayo, kayo mga Pilipino sa totoo lang (Who is put at risk? Me, my family, their lives. Those devils are going to get back at me. I am not a millionaire to have a whole squad at my back protecting me. I am now the one with the problems. Did I benefit? It’s you, you Filipinos),” he added.
He, meanwhile, commended the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the Philippine Army, and the intelligence community for confiscating billions worth of illegal drugs.
Duterte’s statements came after 11 American senators, led by Senator Edward Markey, called the attention of US President Joe Biden over their concerns about the human rights situation in the Philippines under the current administration.
"I'd like to say something about itong (this) State Department. Be careful of what you are planning or doing there because you yourself, your country is also guilty of so many violations of human rights," he said.
Last June, Fatou Bensouda, who was then chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sought authorization from the court’s pre-trial chamber to allow the conduct of an investigation into the alleged crime against humanity during the Duterte administration’s anti-narcotics campaign.
Bensouda said there is a “reasonable” basis to believe that “the crime against humanity of murder was committed from at least 1 July 2016 to 16 March 2019 in the context of the Philippine government’s war on drug’s campaign.” (PNA)
