Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs has failed to substantially eradicate the menace and ensnare major drug lords and should be reformed to prevent further bloodshed, the country’s vice president said on Monday.
Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo, who leads the opposition, also called for a stop to the dreaded police practice of home inspections that have led only to the killings of petty drug suspects.
It was the latest criticism by the vice president of Duterte’s notorious crackdown and is likely to deepen the political divide between the two leaders.
Presidents and vice presidents are elected separately in the Philippines, resulting in candidates from rival parties like Duterte and Robredo ending up in the country’s top leadership and often colliding on policies.
Only about 1 percent of the estimated supply of methamphetamine, a powerful banned stimulant locally known as shabu, has been seized in the past three years since the crackdown was launched by Duterte when he took office in mid-2016, Robredo said.
“Very clearly, based on official data, despite the killings of Filipinos and all the money spent, the amount of shabu and drug money we’ve seized has not gone beyond 1 percent of those in circulation,” Robredo told a news conference.
“If we really want to end the scourge of illegal drugs, we need to run after the big suppliers and not just the small-time pushers,” she said, adding that the campaign would not succeed unless it is reformed to be more strategic, better organized and closely supervised in all aspects by the president.
Her remarks were largely based on information gathered during a brief stint in a government anti-drugs committee, which Duterte last year asked her to help lead after being piqued by her constant criticisms of his bloody crackdown.
Robredo surprisingly accepted the offer, but Duterte fired her after 18 days after she started seeking confidential information about the campaign.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo dismissed Robredo’s statements, saying that Duterte’s campaign has succeeded in closing many drug laboratories and forcing the surrender of a large number of drug suspects.
Big-time drug lords have also been neutralized, Panelo said, although he failed to immediately provide a list of those key drug personalities.
“If you noticed, when she was threatening to release this report, she implied that there were some irregularities discovered, a bomb that would explode on your face. It’s a dud,” Panelo told reporters.
Robredo, a 54-year-old former human rights lawyer and political newcomer, has openly criticized the campaign against illegal drugs launched by Duterte, a long-time city mayor and state prosecutor known for his extra tough approach against criminality and brash speaking style.
Robredo has said that she accepted Duterte’s offer to help oversee the crackdown, despite warnings by her advisers and allies, so she that might be able to save lives under the campaign.
One of her first moves was to request confidential documents from law enforcers, including a list of key drug suspects targeted under Duterte’s campaign.
Duterte warned Robredo about sharing confidential information about the campaign with his foreign critics, including human rights advocates.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in