Duterte: Anti-drug campaign has driven criminals to kidnapping

President Rodrigo Duterte —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/Philippine Daily Inquirer

(LAST UPDATED: 11:07 p.m.) The scarcity of the illegal drugs supply as a result of the government’s merciless campaign has prompted criminals to turn to kidnapping instead, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday.

“There’s a very low supply of drugs now. But they shifted to kidnapping,” Duterte said in a speech before members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

He said that, in three weeks, there had been six kidnappings in Binondo, which is home to a sizeable Fiipino-Chinese community.

“Be careful,” he added.

Duterte made the statement while speaking of his anti-drug war, the target of criticism from human rights groups and international bodes, but which he said had made strides.

He noted that the number of drug users who have surrendered have reached 800,000 and could reach the one million by the end of the year.

By the end of the year, this could reach the one million mark, he said.

The government plans to send the surrendered drug users to rehabilitation.

But it would cost the government, which would have to spend P1 trillion a year for the rehabilitation, medicines, and detoxification of the drug users, he said.

In speaking of his anti-drug war, Duterte also said one Soros was the financier of a human rights organization critical of the drug related killings in the country.

It was apparently a reference to philanthropist and business magnate George Soros.

The Americans, he said, were meddling in the issue of extrajudicial killings by funding nongovernment organizations that comment on the issue.

“Human Rights Watch of New York – that belongs to Soros. Soros, the financier,” he said.

Because of its funding, the group would look for something to justify its existence, he added.

While speaking of his anti-drug war, Duterte dredged up once more his grievance against the US for criticizing his campaign.

He said he was not a rude person, but he lost his “civility” when the US treated him like a dog by threatening to withdraw aid.

He lamented that critics did not even conduct an investigation before blaming him for the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.

“Mr. Obama, what went wrong? Get your dictionary. Find out the right meaning of dignity,” he said. /atm