DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/22 Sept) – On a scale of one to 10, President Rodrigo Duterte has rated the success of his war on drugs at “about five” as of September 22 and dared the United Nations and the European Union to come to the Philippines and investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings but warned them to be prepared to be asked by him.
“(On) a scale of one to ten, we have achieved something like about five but most of the drug ngayon… even here sa Cagayan, if you want drugs, your source of communication, the critical communication will come from your jails,” Duterte said at the inauguration of the Filinvest Development Corporation’s Misamis Power Plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.
He did not elaborate in his speech why he gave it a “five” although last Sunday, he asked for six more months to end criminality and drugs, as he acknowledged he might not meet his campaign promise of “three to six months” because of the enormity of the problem.
President Rodrigo Duterte challenges the United Nations and European Union to come to the Philippines and probe the alleged extrajudicial killing activities in the country, during his speech at the inauguration of the Filinvest Development Corporation’s Misamis 3×135 MW Circulating Fluid Bed Coal Thermal Plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental on September 22. KING RODRIGUEZ/PPD
In the transaction of illegal drugs in the Philippines, “almost 95 percent,” he claimed, are “cooked inside prisons.”
“Puro Chinese, eh kung hindi maghinto itong mga yawa na ito, ibahog ko na sa boiler diha (if we they don’t stop, I will feed them to the boiler),” Duterte said. The audience laughed as he urged them to translate what he had just said in Cebuano.
In response to criticisms that his war on drugs has triggered extrajudicial killings, Duterte said he is inviting the United Nations and the European Union to come to the Philippines and investigate.
“I will write them a letter to invite them for an investigation. But in keeping with the time-honored principle of the right to be heard, matapos nila akong tanungin, tanungin ko sila.. isa-isahin ko sila (after they ask me, I will ask them… one by one)” in an open forum that he said can be held at the Senate or the Folk Arts Theater, Duterte said.
“Everybody will be invited. Tapos manood kayo, tingnan ninyo kung paano ko lampasuhin ‘yan mga yawa na ‘yan,” he said.
According to the President, his first questions to the UN rapporteur will be: “I killed thousands?
