President Duterte, in a televised remark, orders the country’s top customs official to shoot and kill drug smugglers.

PHILLIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte publicly ordered the country’s top customs official to shoot and kill drug smugglers in one of his most overt threats during a deadly four-year campaign that has been the centrepiece of his presidency.

Duterte has steadfastly denied authorising extrajudicial killings but repeatedly threatened drug dealers with death.

He and the national police, which has led enforcement of his anti-drug campaign, have said most of the suspects killed by police during the campaign fought back and threatened their lives.

Duterte gave the order to Bureau of Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero in televised remarks from a Cabinet meeting on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Guerrero, a retired army general and former military chief of staff, was not around when Duterte spoke, but the president said he met Guerrero and two other officials earlier Monday at the presidential palace in Manila.

“Drug is still flowing inside the country through customs,” Duterte said, adding that he had approved Guerrero’s request for firearms.

“I approved the purchase of firearms and until now you haven’t killed even one? I told him, ‘Shape up.’ I told him straight, ‘Drugs is still flowing in. I’d like you to kill there ... anyway, I’ll back you up and you won’t get jailed. If it’s drugs, you shoot and kill. That’s the arrangement,” Duterte said without elaborating.

More than 5,700 mostly poor drug suspects have been killed under Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown, which has alarmed human rights groups and Western governments and sparked an examination of alleged crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

Duterte has vowed to continue the deadly crackdown in his remaining two years in power.

Rights groups said their probes showed that some suspects were killed mercilessly and scenes were altered by police officers who placed firearms in victims’ hands.

Police said rights groups and critics should file criminal complaints in court if they have evidence against officers.

Duterte had placed the corruption-plagued customs bureau under military control in 2018 after two large shipments of illegal drugs slipped past it in Manila.

A congressional investigation into how the large shipments of suspected methamphetamine slipped through a tightly watched port ended with recommendations of charges against some customs officials and internal reforms in the customs bureau.

I’d like you to kill there... anyway, I’ll back you up and you won’t get jailed. Rodrigo Duterte