‘We will get you dead or alive’

DAVAO CITY—It’s the Punisher’s warning to drug lords and criminals: we will get you dead or alive.

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to wage a relentless war against drugs and has set aside what’s left of his campaign funds as bounties to police and military officials who capture suspected drug lords “dead or alive.”

“I’m not saying you kill them but the order is dead or alive,” the brash talking long-time mayor said in a televised news conference in Davao City, where he is known for pursuing drug traffickers.

“When I say dead or alive, they know that [if the suspect] raises his hands, then they will take him alive. But if he fights, then he is dead,” Duterte said.

Duterte said he would pay up to P3 million for every drug lord that officials turn in.   For “supervising” drug addicts, those in charge of distribution, the bounty is P2 million.  It’s P1 million for syndicate members who are “in the second echelon,” and P50,000 for “the ordinary” peddlers, he said.

The targets, he said, will include antinarcotic agents who are secretly involved in the drug trade and jailed crime suspects who manage to continue their drug dealing. He said only crime suspects who put up a resistance would be killed.

Duterte, who has been linked to death squads,  said there was enough reward money from what’s left of his campaign funds “for 100 persons dead.”

“There’s enough money left. I don’t want to get hold of it too long. It’s my money. I did not steal it,” Duterte said on Tuesday evening.

He said military forces would be harnessed in the war against drugs. Army and police units will check on each other to punish personnel involved in drugs, and special forces could be deployed in jails to make sure inmates who continue to deal in drugs will “no longer be standing,” he said.

Duterte, 71, whose six-year term starts June 30, won an overwhelming election victory on a promise to eradicate crime and corruption in the country within six months, a feat police officials say will be difficult to achieve. He told the news conference that the antidrug crackdown is starting “now.”

A former prosecutor, Duterte said he stressed his seriousness in his antidrug campaign to an official who will be appointed to a law enforcement agency.

“I said, ‘I’ll put you there on one condition, that if you have an agent who is messing around with drugs and it comes to a fight, I want you to kill him personally,”’ Duterte said, adding he promised the official he would get the largest bounty if he does that.

 ‘Doable’ in six months

His chosen Philippine National Police chief, Chief Supt. Ronald dela Rosa, has vowed to fulfill his boss’ promise to the public, saying stamping out criminality within three to six months was “doable.”

“His first order: hit all drug lords and criminals,” Dela Rosa told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

Asked what he meant, Dela Rosa said: “It’s up to you to interpret… It can be physical… it can be… come what may.”

He said getting rid of drugs and crime in at most half a year was “attainable.”

“It can’t be done if we don’t move, if the community won’t help. Now, we expect that since the people voted for the Mayor to become president, I hope the people will help achieve what we want to achieve,” said Dela Rosa.

Dela Rosa, a former Davao City police chief,  comes from the Philippine Military Academy’s Class of 1986. He is known for his hands-on approach to fighting crime.

Despite the strong stance against criminals, Dela Rosa said the PNP would respect human rights and follow police operating procedure.

“We are not gangsters, we are not criminals. That’s why we will follow the police operational procedure.  But we will see to it that we will apply police operational procedure to our own advantage, not to the advantage of criminals,” he said.

Duterte’s bold approach to crime and public threats to kill criminals have resonated among Filipinos long exasperated with crime, but have sparked alarm among human rights groups and prodemocracy advocates, who fear Duterte may resort to strongman tactics. With a report from AP