Screaming women beg for selfies and men just want to shake the hand of Duterte's 'chief executioner' whose drug crackdown has left 5,800 dead since July 1
By Jordan Gass-Poore
Daily Mail
December 10, 2016
In one of the poorest countries in Asia, Ronald dela Rosa, director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), is treated more like a rock star than a police chief.
Crowds flock to him in public, thrusting their phones out to capture the moment in a selfie. A trail of fans follows him around the country.
As does a trail of dead bodies.
Aside from President Rodrigo Duterte, dela Rosa, whose nickname means 'rock', is the central figure in the country’s ongoing drug crackdown that began on July 1.
Since then, more than 5,800 people have been killed by either police operations or vigilante groups, according to Foreign Policy Magazine.
Photos of corpses with their heads wrapped in tape and left on streets with signs labeling them 'pushers' or 'drug dealers' have triggered international outrage - but has led to dela Rosa being lauded for his heroism.
The United States, a close ally of the Philippines, said it was 'deeply concerned' by the reports of the killings and the State Department urged Duterte's government to abide by human rights norms.
Dela Rosa's anti-drug beliefs earned a revered place for him in the hearts of the majority of Filipinos, who believe drugs are at the root of all crimes and will destroy the country.
The only people who can save the Philippines from monetary and spiritual collapse? Dela Rosa and President Duterte.
Duterte claimed there are three million drug users in the country, and said in September that he would slaughter them, 'like Hitler'.
Likening himself to the Nazi leader, Duterte said in a speech in his hometown of Davao City: 'I'd be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have (me). You know my victims, I would like (them) to be all criminals, to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.
Statistics from the Dangerous Drugs Board show that there are only 1.8 million users among the country’s population of more than 100 million.
Dela Rosa has done Duterte's bidding with zeal. He's turned the president's experiment to make the Philippines a 'drugless society' into an unofficial national policy.
Heavily-armed police tour neighbourhoods and ask suspected drug users to voluntarily surrender. So far, more than 700,000 people have surrendered, according to CNN.
President Duterte still hasn't issued any written guidelines for how local police forces should respond to his bloody 'war on drugs'.
EDITOR’S NOTE: From December 20 to January 6, I will be in the Philippines where, unlike in the U.S., the overwhelming majority of people oppose the use of any illegal drugs, including pot, and approve the government’s ‘take no prisoners’ war on drugs.
1 comment:
At least they have a coherent, well thought out and at least somewhat effective drug policy, which is a damn sight more than we do.
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