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Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte admits to killing people and abusing drugs
Sydney Morning Herald - December 15, 2016
The 72-year-old former provincial mayor, whose crackdown on illegal drugs has left almost 6000 people dead, admitted over-using an addictive pain-killing drug to relieve pain.
Mr Duterte told a business forum in the presidential palace that he started taking the opioid analgesic drug fentanyl, which is usually prescribed for cancer patients, despite never being diagnosed with cancer.
He admitted his doctor told him to take just a quarter of a square fentanyl pill but he used to take two of them before being warned he was abusing the drug.
"I have this migraine every day. I had a bad sleep... I have a lot of issues with my spine," he said. "When (the doctor) knew it, he made me stop... the first thing that you would lose is your cognitive ability."
In comments before leaving the Philippines to visit Cambodia, Mr Duterte also said that when he was mayor of southern Davao city he used to hunt suspects on his motorcycle, shooting people on the spot. The goal, he said, was to encourage police officers to do the same.
"In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the [policemen] that if I can do it, why can't you?" he said. "I go around in Davao (on) a big bike and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble. I was really looking for an encounter to kill."
Since being swept into office on June 30, Mr Duterte has often made boastful and highly inflammatory comments that he or his aides later sought to deny or clarify.
His justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre? attempted to play down the president's remarks about killing, saying he "exaggerated" and actually "must have been forced".
Human rights groups have documented the killings of hundreds of drug suspects and suspected criminals over two decades in Davao when Mr Duterte, a former criminal prosecutor, was mayor, including children.
Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International's Director for South East Asia and the Pacific, said Mr Duterte's claim that he has personally killed suspected criminals takes the meaning of "state-sanctioned" violence to a whole new level.
"By boasting about the blood on his own hands, President Duterte will further embolden police and vigilantes to blatantly violate laws and carry out more extrajudicial executions without fear of being held to account," she said.
In just five months in power, Mr Duterte has upended Philippine foreign policy by berating the United States and making overtures to China, while his drugs crackdown has been condemned by the United Nations, the US, the European Union, the Catholic Church and human rights groups.
But after having unprecedented popularity in the first months in power, opposition to Mr Duterte's rule has grown as bodies have piled up on the streets – 3841 is the latest count of victims of vigilante-style targeted assassinations.
Independent investigations, including by Fairfax Media, have pointed to police involvement in many of the killings.
Philippine vice-president Leni Robrebo, a 52-year-old social activist and human rights lawyer, declared this week her determination to lead a campaign against Mr Duterte's rule.
"There are so many of us against the policies of the president. I hope I will be able to portray the role of unifying all the discordant voices," she told Reuters.
Ms Robrebo warned the so-called war on drugs was having a "chilling effect" on the public and said Mr Duterte's open backing for police officers allegedly involved in the drugs trade made the situation "scary".
"Where do these poor victims go? There is a feeling of helplessness and there is a growing sense of belief that the government is behind all these," she said. "The rule of law is no longer an assurance that our rights will be protected."
Mr Duterte has denied police are conducting extra-judicial killings but has repeatedly urged police to shoot-on-sight drugs suspects who fail to surrender.
US President-elect Donald Trump has praised the drugs crackdown, according to Mr Duterte, and invited him to the White House next year.
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