‘Why Even Fight?’ Duterte Threatens Drug Lord Politicians with Airstrikes

Calling in the Air Force is taking the war on drugs to another level. But with drug-lords with private armies thinking they can do anything they want, this might actually get their attention. The danger here is two-fold: collateral casualties - bombs are not surgical, and the likelihood that some people will accuse political rivals of being drug dealers just to get rid of them.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to unleash the full might of the military against the private militias of corrupt politicians, including sending in fighter jets to bomb their positions.

The president was giving a speech in which he revealed he had expanded the list of politicians suspected to be involved in the drugs trade.

“Even if you have 100-200 armed men, that will not help,” he said, as quoted by the Manila Bulletin on Tuesday. “Why would you put up a fight? I have 12 FA-50 jets. I will drop five bombs on you. I will really use the force of the government.”

“I told you not to contradict the government. I will use the government because I have to protect the people who represent the government. I will not hesitate.”

Private armies led by politicians and powerful clans have long been a fixture in the Philippines, particularly in the southern island of Mindanao, wracked by conflict with communist and Muslim insurgents as well as the terrorist group, Abu Sayyaf, linked to Islamic State.

Other than providing security, the militias are known to be used for settling scores: in November 2009, gunmen loyal to the powerful Ampatuan family massacred 57 people in the province of Maguindanao. Duterte himself has been accused of leading an armed group dubbed the “Davao Death Squad” prior to his election as president, which allegedly carried out the killings of thousands of accused drug dealers, users, thieves and other petty criminals. Some of the alleged former members of the squad have testified in court, either providing descriptions of the alleged extrajudicial killings, or dismissing the very existence of the group as “media hype.”

Duterte’s latest warning comes just over a week after Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz City, was shot dead along with 13 others, including his wife and his brother, when a shootout erupted during an anti-drugs operation. Parojinog had been on Duterte’s “list” since 2016, and Duterte denounced him and his family as “gangsters.”

Allegations of using the war on drugs as a method of getting political opponents out of the way have also surfaced locally.

“I am the president of the barangay [village] council,” Vicente Yungco Jr told Marina Kosareva for RT’s documentary Project Duterte. “I was really surprised that I was linked with drugs. I’m on bail now, amounting to 80,000 pesos [$1,600] for illegal firearms and ammunition.”

“I think it was a political motivation. I have a political rival in my barangay. We were elected for three terms, they did not win. I’m afraid that certain local officials, they can do whatever they want.”

Over 7,000 people have been killed in the police crackdown on drug dealers since the start of Duterte’s presidency in July 2016, according to data from the Philippine National Police (PNP). The Philippines authorities have claimed that a large portion of those deaths have come from suspects resisting arrest in police operations while others have come at the hands of vigilantes or rival crime syndicates working outside the law. Meanwhile, human rights groups allege there is an unofficial state-sanctioned policy of exterminating drug suspects, while police officers actively collude with the vigilantes.

Duterte's Wild West Show is Cleaning Up the Streets

8 suspected drug dealers slain

Including one who surrendered to police

Eight suspected drug dealers were shot dead by unidentified men in a span of 24 hours in Caloocan City.

Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine President

The latest victim was Ricardo Enderez who died on Monday.

Reports reaching the office of Senior Supt. Johnny Almazan, Caloocan police head, said Enderez was attacked by two men on a motorcycle.

Police said Enderez was a suspected drug dealer in Caloocan City.

Twenty minutes before Enderez was slain, Jose Andrew Marie Tesorero was also shot dead inside his house by two men in bonnets.

Tesorero was also a suspected notorious drug pusher, police said.

Also on Monday, Alfredo Tablate was shot to death in his house. His killers were also wearing bonnets.

On the same day, Japhet Bacaltos was killed by two men.

Police said Bacaltos,37, was suspected to be involved in drug trafficking in the city.

Police also recorded the killing of Robert Joshua Capili and Glenn Sapolingan at around 1:50 a.m. on Monday.

The two were attacked by six armed men in three motorbikes.

On Sunday, two killing incidents in the city were recorded by the police.

The victims were Michael Mendoza and Adan King Gatdula.

Gatdula was killed inside his house by four men in bonnets.

Meanwhile, a man who had surrendered to authorities and promised to end his illegal drug activities was shot dead by policemen.

Police said Michael Paguia was shot dead because he engaged anti-drug operatives in a gun battle.

It appears Duterte found a solution to his overcrowded prison population.

Philippine Crime War Packs Decaying Jails

Duterte style law and order - hundreds killed, thousands jailed, and he's just getting started

By AFP

Mario Dimaculangan shares a toilet with 130 other inmates in one of the Philippines' most overcrowded jails, and conditions are getting worse as police wage an unprecedented war on crime.

Security forces have killed hundreds of people and detained thousands more in just one month as they have followed the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said the top priority at the start of his six-year term is to eliminate drugs in society.

Those detained appear doomed for lengthy stints in an underfunded and overwhelmed penal system, like in the Quezon City Jail where Dimaculangan has wallowed for 14 years while his trial over murder and robbery charges have dragged on.


Inmates sleep on the ground of a basketball court inside the Quezon City jail at night in Manila on July 19, 2016 ©Noel Celis (AFP)

"Many go crazy. They cannot think straight. It's so crowded. Just the slightest of movements and you bump into something or someone," Dimaculangan told AFP in one of the jail's packed hallways that reeked of sweat.

There are 3,800 inmates at the jail, which was built six decades ago to house 800, and they engage in a relentless contest for space.

Men take turns to sleep on the cracked cement floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, underneath beds and hammocks made out of old blankets. Even then, bodies are packed like sardines in a can, with inmates unable to fully stretch out.

When it rains, the conditions are even worse as inmates cannot sleep on the basketball court, which is surrounded by the cells in decaying concrete buildings up to four storeys high.

The cash-strapped national government has a daily budget of just 50 pesos ($1.10) for food and five pesos (11 cents) for medicine per inmate, although with the bulk buying of supplies, Quezon City Jail detainees have a sustainable diet of soup, vegetables and meat.

Pales of water are used to flush the scarce toilets, with the stench compounded by the rotting garbage in a nearby canal.


- Unthinkable conditions -

The jail's management does what it can to make life bearable, such as running dance competitions and other rehabilitation activities.

Inmates also say there have been improvements in recent years, particularly with the food and more rehabilitation programmes.

But Raymund Narag, a criminal justice scholar at the Southern Illinois University in the United States, said such conditions were unthinkable in Western nations.

"If this happened in America, there would be a riot every day. Courts would declare these jails unfit for human habitation," Narag told AFP.

The Philippine penal system is the third most congested in the world, according to the University of London's Institute for Criminal Policy Research.

Jails nationwide have nearly five times more inmates than they were built for, according to government data.

And the situation is set to get much worse, very quickly.

Under Duterte's crime war, police have reported arresting more than 4,300 people for drug-related crimes since he took office on June 30.

Duterte has repeatedly urged his law enforcers to do more, calling on them to triple their efforts to eradicate the drug menace that he says is threatening to turn the Philippines into a narco-state.

The population of Quezon City Jail, which houses inmates in a northern district of the Philippine capital who are on trial but not yet convicted, has grown by 300 since Duterte won May elections.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre told AFP the government was preparing locations for new prisons while courts have been ordered to prioritise the expected deluge of drug cases.

But Duterte has said little about far-reaching reforms needed to fix the systemic problem of overcrowding.

"If there are no new jails, no budget increases, no additional courts and prosecutors, the system will explode. That will be a humanitarian crisis," said Narag, the scholar who speaks from harrowing personal experience.


- Justice delayed -

Narag, 41, was locked up in Quezon City Jail in 1995 as a 20-year-old after being accused of killing a student from a rival college fraternity.

It took seven years for a court to acquit him, which is about the average length of a trial in the Philippines and one of the main drivers of the overcrowding problem.

Dimaculangan is the longest-serving inmate in Quezon City Jail, after being charged with killing a politician's relative in 2001. Dimaculangan is a pseudonym, because his real name cannot be used for legal reasons.

Sounds a little like the Ol' Bailey in the 19th century.

He insists he has a "clear conscience" but cannot get a chance to prove his innocence in court, averaging just one trial hearing a year in a chaotic judicial system notorious for its lack of judges, publicly funded lawyers and court rooms.

Dimaculangan said his spirits used to rise when he was informed of a date for a court hearing, but he had been disappointed too many times with cancellations or postponements.

"Now when they say I have a hearing, I don't care anymore," he said.

With no hopes of freedom, Dimaculangan said he had turned to his Catholic faith and values.

"My purpose is to help my fellow detainees," he said.

"God did not send me here because I am a thief. There are many thieves out there but how come they are not in jail?"


Inmates are packed into a basketball court to sleep at night inside Quezon City Jail, built to house 800 but now accommodating 3,800 ©Noel Celis (AFP)


Inmates take turns to sleep on the floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, or underneath beds ©Noel Celis (AFP)


An inmate (C-top) cooks his dinner as other detainees take a bath inside the Quezon City Jail in Manila ©Noel Celis (AFP)


The jail's management does what it can to make life bearable, such as running dance competitions and other rehabilitation activities ©Noel Celis (AFP)


Inmates participate in a group dance contest inside the Quezon City Jail ©Noel Celis (AFP)


Inmate Mario Dimaculangan (C) is the longest serving inmate at Quezon City Jail after being charged with killing a politician's relative in 2001 ©Noel Celis (AFP)