Amnesty calls Philippines' drug war a 'murdering enterprise

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdownagainst illegal drugs is a "large-scale murdering enteprise" thatshould be investigated by the United Nations, Amnesty Internationalsaid Monday.In a new report entitled "They Just Kill," Amnesty warned that whilethere were fewer reports of killings under the campaign, theextrajudicial executions continue three years after Duterte becamepresident in 2016. "Three years on, President Duterte's 'war on drugs' continues to benothing but a large-scale murdering enterprise for which the poorcontinue to pay the highest price," said Nicholas Bequelin, AmnestyInternational's regional director for East and South-East Asia. "It is time for the United Nations, starting with its Human RightsCouncil, to act decisively to hold President Duterte and hisgovernment accountable," he added in a press conference where thereport was released. According to official statistics, at least 6,600 drug suspects havebeen killed in police drug operations from July 1, 2016 to May 31this year.But the Amnesty report noted" "Due to the government's tactics ofdeliberate obfuscation and misinformation, it is impossible to knowexactly how many people have been killed in the anti-drug campaign."The report documented the deaths of 27 people in 20 incidents ofdrug-related killings between May 2018 and April 2019 in the provinceof Bulacan, north of Manila, which Amnesty tagged as "the country'sbloodiest killing field" now.Eighteen of the incidents were police "buy-bust" operations, and inthose cases "police tried to justify the killing by claiming that theperson fought back, requiring the use of deadly force," the reportsaid. Amnesty cited a forensic expert as saying, "It's so consistent, it'sa script. In fact, when you see the [police] report, it looks like atemplate."Another pattern identified in the report involves "abductions byplainclothes police - and individuals who go missing - which are thenclassified by police as 'buy-bust' kills when the body appears," thereport added. Presidential spokesman Salvado Panelo said Amnesty Internationalshould have helped victims file criminal cases against policeofficers if there were any irregularities in the operations."They should have filed a case against the policeman and we wouldhave welcomed it," he said. "As the president says, we will nottolerate any police abuse because there will always be hell to payfor them."Panelo criticised Amnesty International for "politicizing theso-called extrajudicial killings," adding: "There is bias, there isprejudice." "You cannot be politicizing, running to the media and making reportwithout facts, without a formal complaint," he added. "Otherwise,those are mere allegations and designed to besmirch the reputation ofthis administration."