Duterte dares West to probe drugs war

Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte called US President Barack Obama, the European Union and United Nations “fools” yesterday, and warned they would end up humiliated and outsmarted if they accepted an invitation to investigate his war on drugs.Duterte said he was open to an outside probe by Obama, his Secretary of State John Kerry, the EU and the UN Commission on Human Rights into alleged extrajudicial killings, but on the condition that after he was questioned, he had the right to be heard.“I’ll play with you. I’m very sure they cannot be brighter than me. I will ask five questions that will humiliate you,” Duterte said. “Watch out for that, it will be a spectacle.”Duterte’s remarks came during a televised speech to hundreds of the country’s business elite, during which he said it was necessary to cleanse the streets of drug pushers and rescue the next generation of Filipinos from the scourge of narcotics.Duterte, 71, won the hearts of millions of Filipinos with his outrageous, at times comical speeches and man-of-the-people style in the run-up to a May election.He won by a huge margin after campaigning almost entirely on promises to wipe out drugs and crime.Nearly 2,300 people have died in the war on drugs since the campaign started on June 30, according to police, of which 1,566 were drug suspects killed in police operations.Police had previously said there had been more then 3,600 deaths, but have since concluded that many of that number were homicides and murders unrelated to illegal narcotics.Opinion polls for Duterte’s first 90 days in office suggest he remains popular, with a Pulse Asia survey on Wednesday showing he had the trust of 86% of 1,200 Filipinos surveyed.Duterte said on Wednesday he had officially invited a United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions to investigate the drug killings.Yesterday’s speech was the latest among Duterte’s frequent and furious rebukes of international critics of his drugs war, after they expressed concern about the unusually high death toll and circumstances of the drugs killings.“These fools think (they can do anything) because the Philippines is a small nation,” he said. “Maybe God gave you the money but we have the brains.” Two Philippine police officers are to be charged with murder after being unmasked as motorcycle-riding hitmen who shot dead a local woman, authorities said yesterday.The policemen were wounded and arrested after a shootout with local police last weekend as they fled the scene of the crime in the central island of Mindoro, an official police report said.Loaded handguns, a wig, and a face mask were among items recovered from inspector Markson Almeranez and senior inspector Magdaleno Pimentel, it added.Clad in civilian clothing, the two suspects allegedly shot dead a 51-year-old woman on October 9 outside her home in Gloria, a rural town on Mindoro about 170km south of Manila, according to the police report.Police gave chase, unaware of the suspects’ identity.The authorities said the motive of the killing was unknown.Almeranez was at the time the police chief of Socorro, two towns north of Gloria, while Pimentel belonged to another Mindoro police unit, it added.The two suspects are under police guard at a local hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds and have been removed from their posts, the police statement said.They are to stand trial for murder as well as attempted murder for shooting at the pursuing police, the report said.The shootings occurred as Philippine police wage a brutal crackdown against illegal drugs that has left more than 3,300 dead.Some of those were drug suspects shot dead by police, while many others were gunned down by motorcycle-riding assassins, though there was no immediate indication the Mindoro case was linked to narcotics.Duterte has issued an administrative order to create a presidential task force to protect journalists and investigate attacks on media, in what is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the press.A special unit comprised of cabinet ministers, police, defence and justice officials would spend a month compiling an inventory of outstanding cases before pursuing investigations, said presidential communications secretary Martin Andanar.The Philippines enjoys one of the most liberal media environments in Asia, but violence against journalists is common and probes into killings are often inconclusive or hamstrung by lack of witness testimony.“The reason why the president wanted this administrative order number 1 is because he cares for you, for us,” he told a regular briefing yesterday.“And he believes in freedom of the press.”The order was signed by Duterte on Tuesday and includes the formation of an oversight panel to scrutinise the probes and gather input from non-governmental sources, such as human rights and journalist groups.It would also monitor media personnel in danger and provide them with protection, Andanar said.Scores of journalists have been killed in the Philippines in the past three decades, with many of the victims radio broadcasters, often for coverage of provincial-level politics, which is notoriously dangerous.Thirty-one journalists were among 57 people killed in a massacre in 2009 in the southern province of Maguindanao while covering a local election, in what was one of the most deadly incidents involving media in the world.The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines fourth in the world in its impunity index, which tracks deaths of media members whose killers go free.