Duterte invites media to actual drug raids

President Duterte the other day said he would ask the police to invite journalists to tag-along in their anti-drug operations to get a first-hand view of the war on illegal drugs for which the Duterte administration has been tagged as summary killers, operating outside the ambit of the justice system.

The President said journalists should take positions beside the policemen to document how they conduct drug raids.

“Now, this is an order: Bring the media at paunahin mo sila [let them go first] so that they can get the story from the beginning to the end. Kasi kung papasukin lang at tapos na ang barilan, sabi naman niyo: ‘Ah, tinapunan lang ‘yan ng baril diyan’ [If you allow them in after the gun battle is over, you’ll just say ‘Ah, they planted the guns there],” he said during a press briefing in Taguig City last Tuesday.

“So that is my advice to the police - if they are unbelieving, make them believe,” he added.

The President made the suggestion in asserting that the administration does not conduct extrajudicial killings.

Duterte did not disguise his annoyance in reacting to Senator Risa Hontiveros’ declaration that the administration - through the police - appeared to have adopted a policy of killing, not merely arresting, crime suspects as manifested in the recent deaths of two teenagers, Kian Delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz last month in Caloocan City.

“One swallow a summer makes? Two killings make it a policy of the Republic of the Philippines? Bakit kami pa-patay ng inosente? [Why would we kill the innocent?]” Duterte asserted.