Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte
More than 2,100 suspects have been killed in the past five months in the Philippines as part of a war on drugs, police reported on Wednesday, after President Rodrigo Duterte admitted to having personally killed people.
The 2,102 suspects were killed in operations against drug users and pushers from July 1 to December 14.
These operations also resulted in the arrest of 40,932 drug users and dealers, and the surrender of 908,244, the police report added.
Police are also investigating the killing of 3,993 people in possible connection with the drug war from July 1 to December 12, according to the data.
Most of the victims of these “deaths under investigation” were found dead in streets and back alleys in the country, many bound in tape and with a sign saying, “I’m a drug pusher. Do not be like me.”
Officials have, in the past, admitted that vigilante or hired killers could have been behind some of the deaths, while drug syndicates could be behind other killings.
Duterte, who became president on June 30, stated Monday he used to personally kill suspects while he was mayor of the southern city of Davao.
“I must admit that a third of the killings really happened during police encounters,” he told a business forum on Monday night.
“In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys [police officers] that if I can do it, why can’t you?,” he also stated. “I go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike … and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble also.”
Earlier on Monday, the 71-year-old president stated he was not happy about the growing number of people killed in the campaign, but stressed it would only end if the illegal drugs trade stops.
“I am not a killer,” he stated. “I do not relish or enjoy a Filipino sprawled there with all the blood … I know that people are killed. It does not make me happy. I am Filipino.”
But in Cambodia, where he was visiting, he told the Filipino community he would go on police operations and shoot suspects blindly.
“I would sometimes go along with them. If you say I shot someone, maybe I did. I was closing my eyes because I am scared of firing a gun,” he stated.
The United States, the European Union, the United Nations and international human rights groups have criticized the Philippines’ bloody crackdown on drugs, saying it violates human rights and ignores the rule of law.
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