At our regular village Sunday mass last week, I was listening intently to the parish priest's homily as he discussed the importance of being vigilant about what was happening in the Philippines. He kept talking about the importance of the Fifth Commandant 'Thou shall not kill' and how it is relevant to what is happening on a large scale these past few months.

I think he was trying to remind us not to turn a blind eye to the rising numbers of deaths in just the past two months.

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Let me start with a disclosure and declaration: Because of the contrarian position that I am taking on the war on drugs, I want to declare that:

1) I don't know anyone in the list of narco-politicians and drug coddlers that President Duterte unveiled on Sunday - not one friend or relative or townmate whom I would wish to shield from the punitive hand of the law and public shame.

2) I personally do not use drugs, and am repelled by the very thought of them. And it has been the good fortune of my family not to see any member fall victim to drug addiction.

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CANBERRA - The United Nations has warned that it was "greatly concerned" with the rise in extrajudicial killings of suspected drug pushers and users in the Philippines.

In the strongest yet warning issued by the United Nations condemning President Duterte's murderous campaign against drug lords in the country, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, said that he shared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's condemnation of the summary killings.

"I join the United Nations secretary general in condemning the apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killing, which is illegal and a breach of fundamental and a breach of rights and freedom," Fedotov said. The rise of drug-related killings "contravenes the provisions of the international drug control conventions" and "do not serve the cause of justice," he added.

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MY DAUGHTER Una just had an up-close view of the immediate aftermath of a killing. She and the other passengers of the school bus were on their way home when they saw the dead man slumped on the pavement, head bleeding from an apparent gunshot wound. Though stunned and muttering "Oh, my God, oh, my God," she was able to take a "snapchat" video.

My basketball buddies later confirmed the incident. A "known addict and possibly pusher" was indeed executed near our village in Antipolo. The description of the victim implied that somehow he had it coming.

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THIS IS in reaction to the news item titled "VP laments lack of outcry vs drug killings" (Front Page, 8/5/16). It is true that the number (more than 800 to date) of suspected drug users and pushers killed has become alarming. But the "alarm" could be for different reasons. Some are alarmed because the number shows the magnitude of the drug problem in the country, while others are alarmed because those killed were just suspects deprived of their right to due process.

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He just does things differently. Way past midnight last weekend, in a military camp no one heard of, during the wake for soldiers killed fighting insurgents, President Rodrigo Duterte delivered a bombshell of a speech. He named 160 mayors, judges and police officers he accuses of involvement in the illegal drugs trade.

The speech reverberated across the globe, carried by the major international news networks. Because the speech was delivered in the wee hours, print media missed out on the explosive expose. But it was carried all day by the broadcast media.

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THERE is a growing sentiment after two Cordillerans were included in the list of narco - politicians and judges by President Rodrigo Duterte who have contributed and benefitted from the drug menace.

Included in the list are former Langiden, Abra mayor Felix Castillo and Baguio City Regional Trial Court Branch 61 Judge Antonio Reyes.

According to reports, Castillo has already surrendered to local authorities while Reyes has instead decided to keep mum on his involvement.

It is worth praising the government's resolve in pursuing its anti-drug campaign, particularly in bringing to justice alleged narco-politicians, judges and bad cops who have contributed and/ or benefitted from the drug menace.

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IF THE intelligence reports about public officials tagged by President Digong as protectors of the illegal drug trade were A-1, they should have suffered the same fate as lowly drug pushers who were summarily executed by the police and vigilante groups.

The only difference between these officials and small-time drug pushers is the privilege of rank; they're still lowlifes for having destroyed millions of lives.

Even in the war against drugs, the people at the higher end of the totem pole are treated differently.

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Mayors, Judges, Congressmen, Cops, Soldiers on List

DAVAO CITY - They have 24 hours to surrender or be hunted down.

To stop what he described as a drug "pandemic," President Duterte bared yesterday a list of 159 incumbent and former local executives and lawmakers, judges and uniformed personnel suspected to be involved in the illegal drug trade.

Police and other state forces securing many of the 159 were pulled out.

The President said he owed it to the Filipino people to release the names, noting that "my mouth does not have due process."

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Lawmakers have expressed strong support for President Duterte's anti-drug campaign but stressed that due process and the rule of law must be upheld.

Duterte yesterday named at least 158 mayors and vice mayors, judges, lawmakers, police and military officers involved in drug trafficking in the country.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police, said the administration should have made sure of the cases against those exposed before Duterte named them.

"But now that names have been exposed, the authorities are hard put to prove the President's accusation. Hopefully, the evidence gathering will be conducted to serve the ends of justice and not the President's credibility," Lacson said.

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MANILA (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police and military personnel to illegal drugs Sunday, ordering them to surrender for investigation as he ratcheted up his bloody war against what he calls a "pandemic."

Duterte relieved members of the military and police he named from their posts and ordered government security personnel to be withdrawn from politicians he identified in a nationally televised speech. He also ordered gun licenses of those named revoked.

"All military and police who are attached to these people, I'm giving you 24 hours to report to your mother unit or I will whack you. I'll dismiss you from the service," Duterte said in the speech at a military camp in southern Davao city.

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The Dark Side of Duterte's Deadly but Popular War.

When the image of Jennelyn Olaires weeping as she cradled the body of her slain husband went viral in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte called it melodramatic.

There's not much Duterte hasn't said when it comes to his war on drugs, his only real election platform and his big promise to the 16 million Filipinos who swept him to power in May by a massive margin.

And "The Punisher", as he is known, has been true to his word.

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DAGUPAN CITY The anti-illegal drug campaign of President Duterte is getting out of hand, and the public should not simply turn a blind eye to the killings.

Sen. Leila de Lima acknowledged the gravity of the drug problem in the country, but stressed the measures against it should respect the rule of law.

"We cannot simply believe that all those who were shot dead grabbed the guns of arresting police operatives or they fought in an armed encounter with lawmen," De Lima said during a testimonial dinner for the successful 2015 Bar examiners of the University of Pangasinan on Friday.

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LINGAYEN-DAGUPAN Archbishop Socrates Villegas said he could no longer stomach the killings of suspected drug users and peddlers.

"I do not have to be a bishop to say this. I do not have to be a Catholic to be disturbed by the killings that jar us every time we hear or watch or read the news," the prelate said in a statement entitled, "Let the Humanity in Us Speak."

The statement will be read on Sunday in place of the homily during masses in all the churches and oratories in the Archdiocese of Lingayen, Dagupan.

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MANILA - The Philippines' new president, Rodrigo Duterte, on Sunday publicly accused scores of judges, mayors, lawmakers, military personnel and police officers of involvement with the illegal drug trade, giving them 24 hours to surrender for investigation or, he said, be "hunted" down.

Mr. Duterte rejected calls last week from international human rights groups to observe due process in the war he has declared on both sellers and users of illicit drugs, after a photograph of a drug user shot and killed by vigilantes made it to the front pages and became a symbol for the bloody antidrug campaign.

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MANILA (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly linked more than 150 judges, mayors, lawmakers, police, and military personnel to illegal drugs Sunday, ordering them to surrender for investigation as he ratcheted up his bloody war against what he calls a "pandemic."

Duterte promptly relieved members of the military and police he named from their current posts and ordered government security personnel to be withdrawn from politicians he identified in a nationally televised speech. He also ordered gun licenses of those named revoked.

"There is no due process in my mouth," Duterte said.

Duterte's war on drugs has already left more than 400 suspected dealers and pushers dead and more than 4,400 arrested in more than a month since he took office.

[end]

It's just hyperbole, President Duterte said in explaining his promise to kill local government executives and other officials involved in drugs.

He may be telling the truth. Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera town in Leyte, after all, is still alive after turning himself in last week and naming his son Kerwin, still at large, as a drug dealer.

As of yesterday afternoon, Mayor Mamaulan Abinal Mulok of Maguing, Lanao del Sur and former mayor Mohammad Ali Abu Abinal also remained alive after presenting themselves to Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa at Camp Crame last Friday.

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THE CORPSE had clean feet. The body was deposited beside a highway that would soon be crawling with motorists getting away for the weekend to Tagaytay and Batangas, favorite watering holes for Manila's middle class and affluent.

On a weekend, the site would have been risky for an execution or a disposal. There are nearby malls, arcades, and the restaurants and excursion sites of Tagaytay and the beaches of Batangas.

But late Thursday evening or Friday dawn? A few meters from a university and situated beside an open clearing, the spot is located along a stretch of road that is unlighted and uninhabited.

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Aside from governors, mayors and members of Congress, judges are also in the order of battle against illegal drugs, President Duterte revealed on Friday.

Speaking at the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp LapuLapu in Cebu, Duterte warned he would have to kill them if they would not stop their illegal drug trade.

"These drug lords, these mayors, these governors... don't be complacent with me, I will have you killed," Duterte said.

"Now, if I read the names of the judges which I will in a few hours, a few days. It's not that I want them shamed, I do not know them. There are police officers, judges, there are congressmen. But it behooves upon me, I have the obligation to tell the Filipino people what is happening to this country," he said.

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MANILA (AP) - President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged abuses have occurred in his war on illegal drugs, which has left more than 400 people dead in a month and alarmed rights activists. But Duterte refused to back down from a shoot-to-kill order for drug suspects.

Duterte said in a speech late Thursday that most drug dealers and addicts slain in gunbattles with police had put up a fight, but added that he was sure some were "salvaged," a local slang for extrajudicial killings usually by law officers.

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