Duterte to drug war critics: What about lives wasted by narcotics?

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte ALFRED FRIAS/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

DAVAO CITY – President Rodrigo Duterte lamented that his critics were quick to condemn him whenever a suspected drug pusher or drug lord was killed but they did not complain about the innocent people wasted by illegal drugs and those killed by drug-crazed individuals.

“This time, these idiots, especially the European parliament, they keep on harping on the Philippines on the death of… without a single one complaining about the death of the innocents dying and drug lords living with houses in Australia, in America at the expense of their felony,” the President said in a speech before masons here on Thursday.

The event was off-limits to the media but Malacañang released the transcript of his speech on Friday.

President Duterte said his critics, especially from foreign countries, should stop criticizing him and start looking at the other side of the story as well.

“And that is the reason why you hear me responding to suggestions and… with an insult. Because it hurts to be just looking at the number of criminals and you don’t bother to look when you say, ‘there are 4,000 killed by the soldiers.’ Correct,” he said. “But kindly turn the page. How many lives, innocent lives we have lost? [All wasted?] because of drugs.”

He said even the US itself, the “Control Board of the United Nations says that shabu among other substances is the most toxic.”

“It creates an aberration in the mind and they have bizarre behaviors. That is why today, yesterday, tomorrow, and… you see, “father killing” a guy… substances in the mind would rape a child, six-year-old, nine years old, six months,” he said.

By criticizing him because of the deaths of suspected criminals and drug pushers, President Duterte said his critics “(a)pparently, they have lost their sense of humanity.”

“The EU and most of the countries have a misplaced… They don’t bother to look at the victims,” he said. “You know, because people judge best when they condemn. They only look what they can criticize.”

He said criticism that he ordered the killings had never been proven.

“I was first investigated by the rapporteur (Philip) Alston of the United Nations. Nothing happened. His report was that he blames the negligence or the non-performance of the police. And that was it. (Senator Leila) de Lima, she was the chairman of the Human Rights Commission. She came here with the members of the Commission en banc and investigated me. To this day, no finding,” he said.

Even when De Lima became senator, President Duterte said she tried to pin him down over the killings.

“When she was a senator, she initiated an investigation. Until now, there is no finding. When she was the highest official now of that Commission and until now, she keeps on bumbling,” he said.

Duterte said he was not denying that he threatened to kill criminals and drug pushers.

But he said he never told the military and the police to kill even those not fighting back.

But my orders to (Defense Secretary Delfin) Lorenzana and the rest, “destroy the apparatus and organizations of the drug cartels. Destroy them. And if need be, kill,” he said.

“You find something wrong (with that)? Is it wrong for a President to protect his people? It is… is it wrong for President to kill to save his people?” he added.

President Duterte also defended the police’s Oplan Tokhang, saying critics had misconstrued it for killing people.

“Hang is hangyo. Tok-tok is the Visayan word for (knocking). Hang is hangyo, a request to stop it,” he said.

He pledged that the anti-drug war would continue despite criticisms.

“And so this time, I said: Look at the hapless victims, look at the lives lost and his family dying in a very violent way. Please count them. And please count the number of soldiers and police that I have lost against the drug war,” he said, adding that the number went up because of the Marawi siege – which he claimed was “funded by a big laboratory of shabu.”

Duterte said he would not spare even government officials from his war on drugs.

“I was forced to take action against a mayor of a city in Mindanao who was using the mayor’s office as a platform for his drug operation,” he said, referring to slain Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog.

He said when he called mayors to Malacañang for a meeting, he already told them not to engage in the drug trade.

“So those who did not (listen), well I’m sorry. That is how the game of life is played in this planet,” Duterte added. /jpv