War on drugs not targeting the poor – Palace
The government’s war on illegal drugs is not targeting the poor, Malacañang said on Monday in asserting President Duterte’s resolve to rid the country of drug pushers regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella disputed the remarks of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) official criticizing Duterte’s anti-drug campaign was “a war on the poor.”
“The war on drugs is not targeted at any particular segment of society,” Abella said.
“As the President said, he has to clean up the streets of drug
users, pushers and dealers, regardless of their socioeconomic status in life,” he said.
Abella explained that the reason why many poor drug suspects have fallen under the government’s war on drugs was partly due to the popularity of shabu as the “poor man’s cocaine.”
“The most prevalent drug in the Philippines is shabu, dubbed as poor man’s cocaine. The supply, largely from outside the Philippines, is in great demand from users and distributors both coming from poor families,” he said.
Still, poverty should not be an excuse to turn to drug addiction and trafficking, according to Abella.
“Poverty, however, does not justify the use and selling of shabu,” he said.
Phelim Kine, HRW Deputy Asia Director, earlier said the President has “finally acknowledged” that his murderous drug war was “in fact a war on the poor.” Kine was reacting to the President’s statement that he was sorry that slain suspects were poor but he must press on the fight against the narcotics trade.
In a message posted on Twitter, Kine noted that majority of the 7,000 victims were urban slum dweller or some of the poorest, most vulnerable and most marginalized Filipinos.
“Duterte’s admission ends the perverse fiction that he and his government have sought to perpetuate over the past nine months that the victims of the drug war — many of whose bodies are found on street corners wrapped in packing tape, riddled with bullets or perforated with stab wounds — have been drug lords,” he said.
Abella, however, disputed Kine’s statement, saying many people actually feel safe since the anti-drug campaign started by the Duterte government.
“Nothing can be farther from the truth than the HRW accusation that President Duterte has ‘contempt for lives.’ In fact, eight out of ten Filipinos living in Metro Manila now feel safer and more secure under his administration,” he said.
Abella also reminded human rights groups critical of the President’s antidrug efforts to be “more circumspect” about interfering with local affairs without understanding the situation.
“HRW and similar other organizations should therefore be more circumspect about meddling in the country’s domestic affairs. Their lack of appreciation of the context and local reality show a deep insensitivity to other cultures,” he said.
In his visit to Bukidnon last Saturday, the President defended his antidrug campaign despite criticisms it has supposedly targeted the poor.
“Now you say they are only killing and they are killing poor people. Well, I am sorry. I have to clean up and until such time the drug lords are killed,” Duterte said.
“You say you’re poor? That’s not an answer. I have a problem. Four million addicts. Do you want another four million during my term?” the President added.
Demolition job Meanwhile, Malacañang accused the New York Times (NYT) of doing a demolition job against President Duterte as part of well-funded attempt by his political opponents to overthrow him from power.
Abella raised the alleged link of one of America’s biggest news outlets to the ouster plot after questioning the release of a documentary and two articles unfairly criticizing the President’s drug war “in a span of one week.”
“NYT’s very obvious demolition work flies in the face of the very high approval that PPRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) enjoys. The newspaper tries to stir global outrage in a nation that welcomes its newfound peace and order,” Abella said.
“One can only conclude that certain personalities and politicians have mounted a well funded campaign utilizing hack writers and their ilk in their bid to oust PRRD,” he said.
Abella bristled at the Times’ latest documentary titled “When A President Says, “I’ll Kill You,” that featured the controversial rise in drug-related killings in the country. He pointed out that such documentary zeroed in on the “vigilante deaths” that occurred under the present administration.
The Times’ editorial “Accountability for Duterte” also did not sit well with Malacañang.
Abella said the editorial featured two critics – Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano and Jude Sabio, lawyer of self-confessed Davao Death Squad member Edgar Matobato – “mouthing unsubstantiated claims” against the President.
Abella also criticized the Times for its news feature, “Becoming Duterte: The Making of a Philippine Strongman,” that narrated the rise to power of the President “under the context of violence.” He had earlier dismissed the Times article as “a well paid hack job for well-heeled clients with shady motives.”
Malacañang, however, remained unfazed by such demolition work against the President.
“The administration will not be deterred in fulfilling its promise of building a progressive and inclusive nation free from drugs, crimes and corruption,” Abella said.
The Times, in its editorial, has called on the international community to hold Duterte accountable for the killings by imposing some trade sanctions on the Philippines. It also called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the killings happening under the Duterte presidency.