(Warning: Graphic content) In this picture taken on July 8, police officers investigate the dead 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. President Rodrigo Duterte has urged communist rebels to start killing drug traffickers, adding another layer to a controversial war on crime in which he has warned thousands will die. AFP
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—More than 100 members of the Kilusan para sa Demokrasya (KPD) in Central Luzon described the first 100 days of President Rodrigo Duterte in office as days of lawlessness, when they gathered in this Pampanga capital on Saturday afternoon.
“Under this supposed lawlessness throughout the country, armed groups have agreed to a ceasefire, criminality supposedly went down by 49 percent and the military alleged that the Isis (the militant Islamic State) has links with the Abu Sayyaf,” said Pines Arcega, KPD regional spokesperson.
“As these happened, the Armed Forces of the Philippines have been tasked to do police functions to help the Philippine National Police fight criminals, drug dependents and pushers while checkpoints are all over including malls, bus terminals and train stations, virtually teaching people that this is normal,” she said.
The KPD leaders decried the “shortcuts” to due process as pushers, addicts and activists are killed.
These actions, Arcega said, are antipoor and antidemocracy.
She said the economic programs of President Duterte were expected to make poverty worse.
Mr. Duterte’s anti-American stance was “mere posturing” because it really had not acted to cut ties with the United States.
“There is little opposition among legislators as Mr. Duterte attacks the Church, court, media and Sen. Leila de Lima. This is a President who demands subservience and is intolerant of critical views,” Arcega said.
“Like in a movie, his first 100 days is a trailer of his six years in power, which are a challenge to many Filipinos expecting real change,” she said.
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