Duterte sorry for all those caught in crossfire

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte       RENE LUMAWAG/Presidential Photo

President Duterte has apologized for the loss of innocent lives in his brutal war on drugs and vowed to investigate extrajudicial killings that have marred the campaign and drawn criticism from international human rights groups.

“I’m really sorry to all, if I have to say this. It’s not that I’m sorry for the decision, but I’m sorry for those who were caught in the crossfire [in the war on drugs],” Mr. Duterte said in a speech at the opening of the 9th Belenisimo Festival in Tarlac City on Sunday night.

“I’m getting a lot of criticisms. I can understand the Church. I can understand the libertarians. But please, there are 4 million drug addicts. The sheer number we would have never known if I did not become President,” he said.

Nearly 6,000 killed

Nearly 6,000 drug suspects have been killed by police and unknown assailants since Mr. Duterte launched a crackdown on the narcotics trade after taking office on June 30.

He vowed to resign if he failed to end the drug menace within the first six months of his presidency, or until the end of this month, but extended the campaign up to June after the Philippine National Police admitted midway into the drive that it could not meet the President’s deadline.

The killings will continue, Mr. Duterte implied in his speech on Sunday night.

“Forgive me, but I really cannot lose the momentum here,” he added. “As I have said, this is a matter of survival for my country.”

But he promised to deal with allegations of extrajudicial killings, reiterating he never condoned them and insisting that the slayings of drug suspects were the work of drug syndicates purging their ranks.

“It is not our job, believe me,” he said. “I do not allow extrajudicial [killings] … .We do not do that. It’s a dirty job. And it’s unmanly. You tie up [your victims] and cover them with plastic? It’s a form of torture. That’s not the job of the policemen and soldiers. Why cover them? You should just kill them. We are not producing mummies.”

PNP special probe

To end suspicions that the government is behind the extrajudicial killings, Sen. Panfilo Lacson asked the Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa to form a special task force to investigate the slayings attributed to vigilantes.

“I would advise Dela Rosa to form a special task force composed of intelligence and investigative personnel to address this particular issue, those deaths under investigation,” Lacson said on Monday.

“Deaths under investigation” is how the PNP classifies the extrajudicial killings, now said to be two-thirds of the 5,800 deaths in the war on drugs.

“Until we can see a high solution efficiency when it comes to this kind of killings, then suspicion or perception that this has the blessing of the government will remain,” Lacson said.

In his speech, Mr. Duterte maintained that the killings of drug suspects had been going on before he was elected President.

“Please look back, you will notice that many were already being killed. And you must remember that there were about six or seven generals I fired,” he said.

“I’m not saying they did a [cleanup] job,” he added.

“I don’t want to kill. It pains me to kill a Filipino. We all don’t want it. Do you think I enjoy [killing]?” he said.

Mr. Duterte’s take-no-prisoner approach to fighting the illegal drug trade has stirred outrage from local and international human rights group and religious organizations.

National security

It has also put his administration at loggerheads with the United States, United Nations and European Union, which have threatened to cut off assistance to the Philippines amid the unabated drug killings.

Mr. Duterte stressed that wiping out the drug problem was his administration’s primary program, as it had grown into a national security matter.

“By the sheer number [of drug addicts], it becomes a death threat [to] national security. If they continue to increase, where will we go? And so what will be my answer at the end of my term? That I allowed the Filipino people to go crazy?” he said. —WITH REPORTS FROM CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO AND GABRIEL CARDINOZA IN TARLAC CITY