Drug war here to stay, says Duterte, police units to go

Philippine president says he believes almost 40 per cent of police officers are involved in graft after anti-drugs squad kills South Korean businessman in extortion bid.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte listens to national police chief Ronald Dela Rosa during a press conference at the Malacanang palace in Manila on January 30, 2017. Noel Celis / AFP

MANILA // The Philippines police will disband anti-drugs units following the killing of a South Korean businessmen by rogue officers, but the country’s president vowed on Monday to keep up his war on drugs until his last day in office.

Rodrigo Duterte said he was embarrassed that anti-drugs officers had abused their power to engage in kidnapping, leading to the death by strangulation of Jee Ick-joo at the national police headquarters.

The president said other suspects were still at large and gave them 48 hours to turn themselves in, or have a dead-or-alive bounty on their heads of 5 million pesos (Dh367,000), for which he would prefer them dead.

Mr Duterte said he believed almost 40 per cent of police officers around the country were involved in graft.

“You policemen are the most corrupt. You are corrupt to the core. It’s in your system,” he said as he railed against the officers who allegedly masterminded the murder of the South Korean businessman.

He said he wanted to “cleanse” the force by doing a review of all police officers who had previously been involved in extortion.

His police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, said the breakup of anti-drugs units was necessary to rebuild them, but it could disrupt the progress of the campaign.

“We will dissolve all anti-drugs units in the police,” he said at a press conference with Mr Duterte, when asked if he would overhaul the police.

“I will do my job to the best of my ability I hope I will not fail the president and the Filipino people.”

More than 7,000 people have been killed since Mr Duterte, nicknamed “the punisher”, unleashed his bloody crackdown seven months ago. About 2,250 died in police operations and the rest of the deaths are still mostly under investigation.

Police say many of the unsolved deaths so far could be the work of vigilantes or inter-gang drugs violence.

The campaign has caused alarm in the West and rights groups accuse Mr Duterte of turning a blind eye to a wave of extrajudicial killings by police, mostly of low-level peddlers. Police deny that and say the killings are in self-defence.

Mr Duterte said police who had been the subject of internal investigations should be reassigned to work in conflict zones.

Fighting drugs and crime was the key platform of Mr Duterte’s election campaign, during which he promised to eradicate illicit drugs within six months.

After taking office in May, he extended the timeframe until March of this year. He has since said he underestimated the extent of problem, and on Monday promised the crackdown would continue to the end of his six-year presidency, and criticism would not stop him.

“I will extend it to the last day of my term,” Mr Duterte said. “March no longer applies.

“I do not give a shit, I have a duty to do, and I will do it.”

Under the Philippine constitution, Mr Duterte cannot seek re-election when his term ends in 2022.

* Reuters