"If you don’t want to be vaccinated, I’ll have you arrested and have the vaccine shot into your [buttocks]... If you don’t get vaccinated, leave the Philippines. Go to India if you want, or somewhere, America."
Said Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, quoted in The Washington Post.
Now, administration officials are bracing for an avalanche of criticism from human rights groups....
“By essentially endorsing Duterte’s murderous war on drugs, Trump is now morally complicit in future killings,” said John Sifton, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “Although the traits of his personality likely make it impossible, Trump should be ashamed of himself.”...
Killing that number of drug users would "finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition," he said.Duterte took office in June, and the police have killed 1,000+ drug suspects (according to the police). Duterte's statement was a reaction to criticism about these killings — criticism from European Union officials.
Duterte’s neo-authoritarian style, alongside ‘anti-Imperial Manila’ sentiments, has fueled his popularity, particularly in his birthplace of southern Mindanao. Duterte does not deny his poor human rights record — instead he brags about extrajudicial killings that he claims were necessary to pacify Davao.... Along with his bombastic style and rough language — which is typical of a many local politicians but unusual in national politics — this cavalier attitude makes him a kind of Philippine version of Donald Trump.I don't know how seriously to take Duterte's statement about killing 3 million drug addicts. It's important to see that he was getting bombastic pushing back the Europeans who were assuming the high ground, lecturing him on how to behave. He also took a shot at them for not taking in migrants from the Middle East: “You allow them to rot, and then you’re worried about the death of about 1,000, 2,000, 3,000?”
The Philippines is one of the most dangerous nations in the world for journalists, with 176 murdered since a chaotic and corruption-plagued democracy replaced the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago....
"Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won't be killed if you don't do anything wrong," said Duterte... "If you are an upright journalist, nothing will happen to you... The example here is Pala. I do not want to diminish his memory but he was a rotten son of a bitch. He deserved it."
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