Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte reiterates threat to kill drug dealers, denies taking money from China
- In his final State of the Nation Address, the president has admitted there is a ‘long way’ to go in his war on drugs, which has killed thousands
- He also says he was not paid by Beijing during his 2016 presidential campaign to be soft on the South China Sea, and vows never to visit the US
“When I first said I will fight drugs in six months, I thought it was like in Davao, [where] you can either coerce, intimidate or bribe them, or give them money,” he told the audience of lawmakers, diplomats and judges.
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“[But I did not know I was fighting my own government, customs and everyone else who was facilitating the import of drugs … We still have a long way in our fight against the proliferation of drugs.”
Large chunks of the 76-year-old strongman’s rambling address were devoted to his “unyielding” anti-narcotics campaign, which has officially killed more than 6,000 people.
Rights groups put the figure in the tens of thousands and International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors are seeking to investigate the campaign.
Duterte defended the crackdown, saying it had “led to the surrender of millions of drug dependents and neutralisation, capture and prosecution of thousands of drug personalities”.