MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte claimed that he had dumped bodies of drug personalities in the waters of Manila Bay and Laguna Lake.
Defending his administration's anti-narcotics campaign, the president reiterated that the drug problem in the country caused a "social dysfunction of
the majority of our countrymen."
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"Hindi
lang
ninyo
alam.
Baka
hindi
niyo
alam
ilan
tinapon
ko
diyan
sa Manila Bay," Duterte said in a
Malacañang event Thursday evening.
(You just don't know it. Maybe you don't know how
maby bodies I have dumped there in Manila Bay.)
Addressing criticisms against his so-called war on drugs, the president said he
does not need to announce all his moves linked to the campaign.
"Bakit? Nag-a-announce
ba kami
na 'yang drug lord si
ano
tinapon
ko
sa
ano — Laguna de Bay? 'Yung
isa
hinulog
ko
doon
sa Mountain Province
doon
sa ravine? Do I have to advertise that?" he said.
(Why? Are we announcing that this certain drug lord I dumped him in — Laguna Lake? The other one I pushed him in the ravines of Mountain Province.)
Duterte stressed that those who have
been killed in the drug war are those who
decided to resist law enforcement.
The government's campaign against illegal drugs had been receiving criticisms
due to thousands of extrajudicial killings and human rights violations linked in the
conduct of the campaign.
The president, however, dismissed human rights saying that it will not help in eradicating the drug problem in the country.
"Don't think about human rights. That will not help. Human rights will not be there forever. But the government and the Filipino will last — will be here until kingdom come," he said.
Duterte's campaign promise in the May 2016 elections was to end the drug problem in the Philippines in three to six months.
More than three years into his term, the president admitted that the illegal drug trade in the country has worsened. — Patricia Lourdes Viray