DAVAO CITY—They would have lost their heads, too.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, known for his uncanny methods in fighting illegal drugs, said the seven drug suspects who had been killed in a police raid here on Wednesday were lucky that he had not been the one to personally kill them.
Had it been him who encountered the suspects, Duterte, who had repeatedly expressed anger in public over illegal drug and drug syndicates, said the suspects would have been beheaded, too.
“They’re lucky it was the police that killed them,” said Duterte.
“Had it been me, they’ll probably lose their heads,” he said.
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The antidrug raid took place shortly after the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a statement expressing concern over the drug menace gripping the country and a day before President Benigno Aquino III, during a ceremony marking a turnover of leadership at the Philippine National Police, ordered police to prioritize the fight against drugs in apparent response to the CBCP statement.
Duterte had declared war on drugs and drug syndicates in the city long before the CBCP statement and much longer before Aquino took notice of the growing drug menace.
In the city, a shadowy vigilante group known as the Davao Death Squad (DDS) is being held responsible for the extrajudicial killings of crime suspects, mostly drug offenders, and is being linked to Duterte, who had repeatedly denied having a hand in DDS.
In April alone, three suspects were killed after, according to police, trading shots with law enforcers. Police in the city said the seven killed on Wednesday made the same mistake.
No relative of any of the seven drug suspects killed during Wednesday’s raid had come forward to complain.
Aside from killing seven suspects, police in the city arrested 39 people, many of them women and some children.
Facing those arrested, Duterte said he would be considerate to the women and children but urged them to spill the beans.
“I’m not going to deal with you severely,” Duterte told those arrested. “Tell everything to the police,” he said.
The women and children would be turned over to social workers, said Duterte. “Don’t lie, tell the police everything,” he said.
He said, however, that “those needing reformation will have to go to jail.” Some of those arrested were as old as 57 years old and as young as 16 years old.
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Duterte said those arrested for mere drug possession and use “might only go to rehab (rehabilitation).”
He said contrary to what his critics (specifically Justice Secretary Leila de Lima) accuse him of committing, he “does not just kill.”
He said those who can be reformed would be reformed. “You will just destroy more lives if you will not go easy,” said Duterte.
The mayor also declined to take credit for what Director Benjamin Magalong, of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, described as a successful operation.
“The operation would have not been that easy and possible had it not been for the support of the local government unit. We would like to extend our gratitude to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who willingly extended logistical support to our operatives,” Magalong said.
Duterte said the real credit should go to city policemen, however.
He said policemen in the city do not get bribes from drug gangs.
In Manila, Duterte said “almost all” policemen accept bribes from drug syndicates. “When they are called for an operation, many of them would squeal. They will warn criminals because they are on the take,” he said.
Duterte said he would give more incentives to police to continue fighting illegal drugs. Germelina Lacorte and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao