Filipinos support Duterte despite rising drug killings
MANILA: On the day he was sworn in to office, President Rodrigo Duterte went to a Manila slum and exhorted residents who knew any drug addicts to “go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful”.
Two months later, nearly 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users lay dead as morgues continue to fill up. Faced with criticism of his actions by rights activists, international bodies and outspoken Filipinos, including the top judge, Mr Duterte has stuck to his guns and threatened to declare martial law if the Supreme Court meddles in his work.
According to a survey early last month, he has the support of nearly 91% of Filipinos. The independent poll was done during his first week in office, and no new surveys have come out since then.
National police chief Ronald dela Rosa told a Senate hearing this week that police have recorded more than 1,900 dead, including 756 suspected drug dealers and users who were gunned down after they resisted arrest.
Jayeel Cornelio, a doctor of sociology and director of Ateneo de Manila University’s Development Studies Programme, said he suspects only a few of Mr Duterte’s supporters are disillusioned by the killings and his rhetoric because voters trust his campaign promise to crush drug criminals.
Mr Duterte’s death threats against criminals, his promise to battle corruption, his anti-establishment rhetoric and gutter humour have enamoured Filipinos living on the margins of society. He overwhelmingly won the election, mirroring public exasperation over the social ills he condemns.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia has said the killings “may be a necessary evil in the pursuit of a greater good’’, a sentiment echoed by a deluge of comments by Duterte supporters.
Mr Duterte has said drugs were destroying the country. In his State of the Nation Address last month, he said “human rights cannot be used as a shield or an excuse to destroy the country”.