Do You Prefer Martial Law? DAVAO CITY - The drug war cannot wait for the slow wheels of Philippine justice. This was President Duterte's response yesterday to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's instruction to judges tagged by the government as drug coddlers not to surrender unless a warrant is issued for their arrest. He warned that if Sereno precipitated a constitutional crisis, he would defy her, and would order all members of the executive branch to do the same. Asking rhetorically if she would rather have him declare martial law to fight the drug menace, Duterte told Sereno in a nationally televised speech, "There is slaughter every day and you are just interested in the warrant of arrest." [continues 1051 words]
Mayors, Judges, Congressmen, Cops, Soldiers on List DAVAO CITY - They have 24 hours to surrender or be hunted down. To stop what he described as a drug "pandemic," President Duterte bared yesterday a list of 159 incumbent and former local executives and lawmakers, judges and uniformed personnel suspected to be involved in the illegal drug trade. Police and other state forces securing many of the 159 were pulled out. The President said he owed it to the Filipino people to release the names, noting that "my mouth does not have due process." [continues 1171 words]
DAVAO CITY - There is hope for the hundreds of drug users who have surrendered, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency ( PDEA) director general Isidro Lapena said yesterday Lapena said the large number of drug users and dealers who surrendered shows that there is hope for them for the country. In President Duterte's first week in office, 24,000 drug users and pushers surrendered. They will be given the chance to go back to mainstream society and be free of drugs. "It is really overwhelming. We have these people who also wanted to change their lives. They see hope in the government's program," Lapena said. [continues 143 words]
DAVAO CITY - A P1-billion fund for bounty hunters. President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said he has enough money unspent during his campaign and he could use it as bounty for the arrest or killing of notorious drug traffickers in the country. "I have money good for 200 persons. Tanang drug lord ihawa ninyo (Kill all the drug lords)," Duterte said. It is estimated that with up to P5 million each for the 200 drug peddlers, it would amount to at least P1 billion. [continues 741 words]
DAVAO CITY- Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Southern Mindanao regional office of the National Bureau of Investigation to handle all cases involving extra-judicial killings that have hounded this city for a long time now. "I am instructing the local police to forward all cases regarding summary killings, especially those that involve prominent personalities, so that the matter be given full attention and no one will complain anymore that the problem has not been addressed," Duterte said. Non-government organizations placed the number of those who have been summarily executed this year alone to reach almost 200 already. But figures also showed those who fell victims to the vigilante killings have already been more than 1,000 since 1998. The victims in the summary killings were mostly involved in the illegal drug trade if not in other crimes. [continues 199 words]
DAVAO CITY - The Office of the Ombudsman for Mindanao has ordered the six-month suspension of a former police chief and three precinct commanders here for alleged negligence, inefficiency and incompetence in connection with the unsolved summary executions in this city from 1998 to last year. Most of the victims of the killings, blamed on a vigilante group called the Davao Death Squad, were suspected drug pushers and other criminals. The extra-judicial killings, however, were largely unsolved due to the absence of witnesses. [continues 249 words]
DAVAO CITY - Summary executions are again on the rise in this southern metropolis as supposed vigilantes have claimed their 69th victim this year alone. These extrajudicial killings remain unsolved. Police said they could not pursue any lead since no one has come forward to testify. "Ewan, takot siguro sila. Takot sila mabalikan (I don't know, maybe they are afraid. They fear the killers might go after them)," said Senior Superintendent Conrado Laza, city police chief. Human rights and militant groups have expressed alarm over the killings which have reportedly claimed the lives of over 200 people since 2001, 69 of them in the first quarter of this year alone. [continues 347 words]
DAVAO CITY - A local judge has ordered authorities to destroy 100 kilos of high-grade shabu valued at nearly P200 million and chemicals seized from a shabu laboratory raided in Barangay Dumoy here on New Year's Eve. Judge Renato Fuentes of Regional Trial Court Branch 9 originally wanted the seized shabu destroyed last Friday but later decided to move it to Feb. 2. But Superintendent Wilkins Villanueva, Southern Mindanao chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said they need more time to carry out the court order. [continues 91 words]
DAVAO CITY - Authorities arrested 10 Chinese and three Filipinos in follow-up anti-drug operations, a day after six suspected drug dealers were killed in an alleged shootout with anti-narcotics agents here on New Year's Eve. Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez said the 13 suspects were arrested by anti-narcotics agents searching for Allan Sy, the suspected financier and operator of the shabu laboratory raided by lawmen in Barangay Dumoy here. The raid led to the seizure of 76.8 kilos of high-grade shabu with a street value of over P152 million. [continues 817 words]
DAVAO CITY-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte strongly pushes for the immediate dismissal of three policemen who tested positive for substance abuse in a random urine test conducted among Region XI police officers. Duterte vehemently objected the recommendation of the Police Regional Appellate Board (PRAB) to reinstate to the service of PO2 Ritchie Mendoza, PO2 Mario Zata and PO1 Gilbert Parcon. The three were found positive of using metaphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) in an earlier random test. "They have no right to be in the service. If the appellate board's decision centers on the non-commission of a crime, it would be a valid opinion. But they were found positive in their urine tests. They were shabu users. I disagree to give them a chance. We do not need policemen who are drug users," the mayor said. [continues 92 words]
DAVAO CITY -- Mayor Rodrigo Duterte yesterday dared the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop his assumption into office by the end of June following his refusal to take the drug test required for candidates in the May 10 elections. Duterte, who garnered over 315,000 votes, won by an overwhelming margin of over 160,000 votes over his rival, former mayor Benjamin de Guzman. He was proclaimed last May 16 along with the other winning candidates in the city's local elections. [continues 184 words]
DAVAO CITY -- Three suspected drug pushers have been "salvaged" (summarily executed) in the past five days in what certain quarters fear could be a new wave of vigilante killings in the city. The bodies of the three victims were found last Sunday, Monday and the other night, the last being in Barangay Ma-a. All three victims were said to be involved in the illegal drug trade and were listed in the "order of battle" of the city police anti-narcotics department. [continues 316 words]
DAVAO CITY - Drug addicts die young, but in this city, many have perished in the hands of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), a shadowy vigilante group targeting drug pushers and addicts. The vigilantes have been allegedly so successful in tracking down and killing suspected drug dealers and users that more than 200 of them have surrendered to authorities here and even vowed in an oath-taking ceremony before Mayor Rodrigo Duterte not to get hooked on illegal substances again. To help drug addicts overcome their habit, Duterte announced that the local government would provide facilities and a P2,000 monthly allowance to those who would take their rehabilitation seriously. [continues 151 words]
DAVAO CITY -- "Thou shalt not kill." In November 2001, Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla, alarmed over the spate of extra-judicial killings here at that time, issued a pastoral letter and titled it after the Sixth Commandment. Now Capalla can't help but recall his pastoral letter. The reason: summary executions or "salvagings" have again hounded this southern metropolis, claiming the lives of 30 people since last June 16 alone -- and at least 60 since January. The killings of mostly suspected drug pushers, largely being blamed on the shadowy Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group, have remained unsolved. [continues 263 words]
DAVAO CITY -- Human Rights Commissioner Dominador Calamba II dared local government officials in certain parts of Southern Mindanao to stop vigilante killings of suspected drug pushers and gang leaders. "Let them stop the killings because these are counter-productive. Vigilante killing is a crime and it mars the peace and order," he said. Vigilante killings have again proliferated in Davao City, Davao del Norte and Davao del Sur, with unidentified men "salvaging (summarily executing)" even teenage leaders of street gangs. Calamba, who hails from this city, said it is impossible for local government officials not to know the perpetrators of these killings which they apparently have tolerated. [continues 108 words]
