Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday threatened to “kill” drug dealers after police seized 756kg of methamphetamines.
“If you destroy my country distributing 5.1 billion pesos worth of shabu… I will kill you,” Duterte said in recorded address, referring to the drugs.
The crystal methamphetamine, with a Philippine market value at 5.1 billion pesos (S$142.71 million), was one of the biggest seizures since Duterte unleashed his war on drugs.
He did not say where the drugs were believed to have come from but said the Philippines was a “transshipment centre for Mexican drugs gangsters”.
Duterte also hurled insults at human rights groups for criticizing his anti-narcotics campaign.
In a report released on Thursday, the United Nations have said that tens of thousands of people in the Philippines may have been killed in the war on drugs since mid-2016.
“Despite credible allegations of widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings in the context of the campaign against illegal drugs, there has been near impunity for such violations,” the report said.
However, government data put the number of suspected drug dealers and users killed in police anti-narcotics operations since July 2016 at 5,600.
Duterte’s office dismissed the UN report as “rehashed claims” and the accusation of impunity as unfounded.
Tags: Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Drug war, drug dealers