Pubdate: Sun, 05 Jun 2016
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Note: by the Associated Press

PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT-ELECT URGES PUBLIC TO KILL DRUG DEALERS

he Philippine president-elect has encouraged the public to help him in
his war against crime, urging citizens with guns to shoot and kill
drug dealers who resist arrest and fight back in their
neighborhoods.

In a nationally televised speech late Saturday, Rodrigo Duterte told a
huge crowd in the southern city of Davao that Filipinos who help him
battle crime will be rewarded.

"Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you
have the gun - you have my support," Duterte said, warning of an
extensive illegal drug trade that involves even the country's police.

If a drug dealer resists arrest or refuses to be brought to a police
station and threatens a citizen with a gun or a knife, "you can kill
him," Duterte said. "Shoot him and I'll give you a medal."

The 71-year-old Duterte won the May 9 presidential election on a bold
promise to end crime and corruption within six months of the start of
his presidency. That vow resonated among crime-weary Filipinos, though
police officials considered it campaign rhetoric that was impossible
to accomplish.

Human rights watchdogs have expressed alarm that his anti-crime drive
may lead to widespread rights violations.

Duterte, a longtime Davao mayor, has been suspected of playing a role
in many killings of suspected criminals in his city by
motorcycle-riding assassins known as the "Davao death squads," but
human rights watchdogs say he has not been criminally charged because
nobody has dared to testify against him in court

In his speech on Saturday, Duterte asked three police generals based
in the main national police camp in the capital to resign for
involvement in crimes that he did not specify. He threatened to
humiliate them in public if they did not quit and said he would order
a review of dismissed criminal cases of active policemen, suggesting
some may have bribed their way back onto the force.

"They go back again crucifying the Filipino," he said. "I won't agree
to that."

"If you're still into drugs, I will kill you, don't take this as a
joke. I'm not trying to make you laugh, son of a bitch, I will really
kill you," Duterte said to loud jeers and applause.

The foul-mouthed former government prosecutor said crimes were
committed by law enforcers because of "extreme greed and extreme
need." He said that he would provide a small amount to an officer who
was tempted because his wife has cancer or a mother died, but that
those who would break the law because of extreme greed "will also be
dealt with by me. I'll have you killed."

Duterte, who starts his six-year presidential term on June 30,
repeated a plan to offer huge bounties to those who can turn in drug
lords, dead or alive.

Though it remains to be seen what will happen with Duterte's threats
when he takes office, some policemen have heeded his call for a
tougher anti-crime approach.

In suburban Las Pinas city in the Manila metropolis, police have
apprehended more than 100 minors who defied a night curfew and men who
were either having drinking sprees in public or roaming around
shirtless in violation of a local ordinance. The crackdown was dubbed
"Oplan Rody" - after Duterte's nickname - or "Rid the Streets of
Drinkers and Youth."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D