No anarchy despite drug killings – Duterte

MANILA, Philippines - The nation is not slipping into anarchy despite scores of people being killed in the campaign against illegal drugs, President Duterte maintained last night.

Duterte took exception to the statements of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno expressing her concern over a looming anarchy in the aggressive campaign against illegal drugs.

“Ma’am, I am sorry but do not give such statement. You said, this country is sliding into anarchy. At no other time that the streets of Manila are almost freed of criminals. You walk around and find out,” Duterte said in a speech before the 10th anniversary of the military’s East Mindanao Command in Davao City.

“Do you think the military and the police agree that I will do something that will create anarchy and then they remain loyal to me? I would end up getting killed. They have no loyalty to me. These guys (are) loyal to the Constitution and the flag,” Duterte said.

He said there is no anarchy for espousing the cause that individuals should not surrender to the police when there are no legal warrants of arrest.

“I’d like to respond to the Chief Justice. And as much as possible, I want to be respectful as I can even be… Madam Justice, you are again wrong when you say, ‘do not allow yourself to be arrested if there is no warrant.’ That might add to the number of people getting killed, ” he said.

As Duterte corrected Sereno anew over her latest pronouncements, he again lectured the crowd about pursuing criminals without warrant, citing his own experience with judges when he was a young prosecutor.

Duterte said every Filipino can invoke citizen’s arrest if he becomes witness to a crime or a continuing crime.  

“If you tell someone that you have no warrant but you have a gun… hearing your words, ‘do not allow yourself to be arrested without warrant,’ is a very dangerous statement,” he said.

“You will promote anarchy, the things that you really fear. There is no anarchy under my watch,” Duterte stressed.

He said the deaths of 800 people or even 5,000 could not cause anarchy.

State-sponsored killings

Malacañang also stressed there are no state-sanctioned killings in the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella took  exception to the statements of the Chi Drug war ef Justice.

Sereno expressed her concern over the daily killings of suspected drug offenders that have reached almost 1,600 since President Duterte was sworn into office.

Abella however refused to comment on the BBC documentary of a female assassin making a living by picking off drug suspects in the streets of Manila.  

“I think the terms that you used imply that a lot of these are state sanctioned, you know. If you read very carefully, actually if you listen very carefully to what the President is saying, and how the strategy is being carried out, it really does not implicate, it really does not implicate police authority,” Abella said.

“There is no statement, there is no policy, especially what you just termed as a frightening landscape,” he added.

Abella said the President has taken on the role of ‘parens patriae,’ Latin for “parent of the nation” in dealing with the drug menace.  

“He is saying, he’s really calling out… This is a time of crisis,” Abella said.

He said the alarming drug problem has not been exposed on the national level until after Duterte became President.

“You know the reason why perhaps people have not fully appreciated how deeply the spread of the drug menace is because it’s only now that it’s being revealed,” Abella said. “For the longest time, it was either ignored or not attended to and so people are not aware of the depths, it’s only now. And that’s why he’s making a large, loud call.”

Abella took exception to the comment of Sereno that the courts are moving to prevent anarchy as a result of the administration’s aggressive anti-drug campaign.  

He said the Chief Justice merely talked about the judiciary’s role.

“ I’d just like to say that the actual statement of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was actually a statement of the court ideal, that the judiciary’s role is to keep the social fabric intact, to address people’s cry for justice and thereby, prevent society’s descent into anarchy,” Abella said. 

“It was a simple explanation and not a statement on the state of things,” he added.

He reiterated the President’s stance should be taken in the context that he does not want the country to degenerate into a narco-state.

Abella downplayed global criticisms on the ruthless campaign against illegal drugs by the Duterte administration.

He said the President’s campaign should not be misappreciated as more Filipinos are saved from the drug menace.

Abella said the whole anti-drug operation should be taken in context “from where the President is and from where the President stands.”

“What he sees is basically a nation that has really entered into the mass of narco-politics, when people who are in government and people who are in authority have consciously made choices that actually allowed the proliferation of drugs. – With Ghio Ong