Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte blamed the Philippines’ neighbour, China, for contributing to the country’s drug burden.
Speaking on Sunday evening to his former classmates in college at an event at the presidential palace in Manila, Duterte said he has reason to believe that Chinese drug syndicates operating in the Philippines were to blame for the country’s drug problems. He said that his basis for accusing them is because a number of the casualties in the anti-drug drive operations are Chinese.
“Most of the unclaimed fatalities in the anti-drugs operations are Chinese,” he said.
He said he plans to approach China and ask them why the matter had come to this.
“Most of the people that they send to the Philippines do drugs. And these include those who are already in prison,” Duterte said.
Over the course of several weeks since Duterte assumed power as the country’s 16th President, a total of 192 suspected drug peddlers were slain, supposedly after they fought back with arms or resisted arrest, according to the Philippine National Police Directorate for Investigation.
The anti-drug drive is among the centre piece of Duterte’s administration that hinges on implementing law and order. During his campaign for the presidency, the 72-year-old erstwhile Davao City mayor warned that he does not mind if his administration would be awash with the blood of those who do drugs and grow rich by selling drugs at the expense of destroying families.
Duterte said the fact that a large number of suspected drug dealers slain were Chinese does not mean that he is anti-Chinese. He said he has Chinese blood running in his veins as his mother is partly Chinese.
Chinese syndicates have dominated the Philippines drug underworld for years. One of the country’s most high profile drug cases involved a Chinese immigrant, Lim Seng.
In 1972, Lim Seng was ordered executed by firing squad by then President Ferdinand Marcos as the drug menace — mainly cocaine and heroin, took root in the country.
In the age of crystalline methamphetamine, more popularly known as “shabu” in the Philippines, it is still the Chinese, as well as the Taiwanese, who dominate the business.
“I will not allow my country to be destroyed,” Duterte sternly said.
Drug operation in the Philippines are getting increasingly sophisticated. From fixed warehouses that could be raided by authorities, drug makers have transitioned towards mobile laboratories that are more difficult to detect.
On Monday, last week, police seized a drug lab disguised as a fishing vessel in Olongapo, north of Manila.
Four Chinese crew members of the vessel were arrested as well as several grams of the illicit substance.
In the Philippines, dealing in illegal drugs is a capital offence.
For this reason, Duterte allies in the legislature are pushing the revival of the death sentence for so-called heinous crimes such as rape, murder and dealing in drugs.
Martin Dino, head of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) said while the rights of the accused must also be protected, the government campaign against illegal drugs should not be held up by complaints from libertarians.
“We support the government’s campaign against drug because we stand to lose more, including our loved ones, if we allow these criminals to dominate our way of life,” he said during a coffee shop forum in Manila, “Tapatan sa Aristocrat.”
