</s>PRESIDENT Duterte said on Monday his bloody antidrug campaign that has left nearly 1,800 people dead does not amount to genocide, but that he’s ready to go to jail to defend his men from lawsuits.

Mr. Duterte drew a line between the widespread killings sparked by his antidrug war and the brutality under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the atrocities committed by Islamic State group extremists.

“Genocide? Who did I kill? I did not kill any child. I did not drop barrel [bombs] just likeal- Assad,” President Duterte said in a speech to mark the Philippines’s National Heroes’ day before war veterans, ambassadors and top officials. “I’m fighting…criminals.”

Referring to Islamic State group militants, whom he called “idiots,” Mr. Duterte said, “I do not burn women because they refuse to have sex.” At least 1,779 drug suspects have been killed in President Duterte’s campaign, including 712 who were gunned down in clashes with the police, with the rest being slain in still-unclear circumstances, the national police chief told a Senate inquiry last week.

At least 3.7 million Filipinos have become addicted to methamphetamine, a prohibited stimulant known locally as shabu, with about 600,000 drug users and dealers surrendering to authorities, Mr. Duterte said.

Human-rights groups have expressed alarm over the spate of killings, and United Nations (UN)-appointed human-rights experts warned steps should be taken to halt the violence, adding that the government and law enforcers could be held responsible.

“Claims to fight the illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings,” UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard said in a statement this month. The 71-year-old President Duterte built a name with his deadly crime-busting style as a longtime mayor of southern

 Davao City. He described his campaign against drugs as a harsh war that would involve the military because the problem has worsened into a crisis and claimed the lives of law enforcers.

“We might still end up like the South American countries and their fractured governments. I am declaring war,” he told an audience at a national heroes’ cemetery on Monday, which included ambassadors, war veterans and security officials. The drug menace, he said, “has infected every nook and corner of this country involving generals, mayors, governors, barangay [village] captains” and policemen.

Pressing his campaign, Mr. Duterte announced bounties of P2 million ($42,000) for information that would help the government identify any police officer protecting drugs syndicates.

He repeated his pledge to defend the police and military, but warned law enforcers against conniving with criminals.

“In the pursuit of law and order, pursuant to my directions, you do not have to worry about criminal liability,” he said. “I will go to the prison for you. I take full legal responsibility, you just do it according to the books.” “But for those in the government, the police, the corrupt police and the corrupt judges and the corrupt prosecutors, there will be a day of comeuppance, there will always be a day of reckoning,” Duterte said.</s>PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday brushed aside the possibility of being hauled into international courts over mounting deaths in his war against illegal drugs, daring his critics to send him to jail for it.

But Duterte, in his National Heroes’ Day speech, pointed out that he should not be compared with the murderous Islamic State or Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who are accused of various atrocities and crimes against humanity.

“Did I kill a child? Did I drop bombs like Assad and those other idiots? Did I burn women who refuse to have sex?” the President said at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig.

“I will take full legal responsibility. I will be happy to join them in prison. I will not ask for a special room. I’d just ask for a bed, foam, and something to read. Do not scare me with [these cases of]genocide,” he said.

Duterte again argued that his war against the illegal drug trade would be for the “law-abiding, God-fearing citizens to be comfortable, period, that they are not molested, their children can walk the streets and come home safe and sound.”

Last week, the Philippine National Police told a Senate investigation 756 drug suspects have been killed in police operations nationwide. A total of 1,160 deaths were also recorded “outside police operations,” likely perpetrated by vigilantes or drug syndicates out to cover their tracks.

On August 18, UN special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and Dainius Pūras called on the Philippine government to stop the wave of killings of people linked to illegal drugs, saying that going after drug traders won’t exempt “state actors” from international legal obligations.

Callamard said Duterte’s supposed directives to kill drug suspects and drug users who don’t surrender were “irresponsible in the extreme and amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law.”

 “It is effectively a license to kill,” she said.

Bounty

 Duterte ignored the rapporteurs’ warning against encouraging impunity, and threatened to put a P2-million bounty on policemen involved in the illegal drug trade.

He even urged law enforcers to rat on their colleagues.

“I consider the fight against drugs a war. I am declaring war. It has infected every nook and corner of this country, involving generals, mayors, governors, barangay (village) captains, and so many of the ‘ninjas’ [as]we call them … these are the police who are into it,” Duterte said in Taguig.

“I might be inclined to place a reward on their head, the members of the police who are protecting the drug syndicates in this country. I am placing, per head, P2 million,” he said.

Duterte pointed out that there are now 3.6 million drug dependents in the country based on data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. These drug dependents are not mere “users” given their sheer number, he claimed.

“You can just imagine a country with three million addicts and they say they are just users. My God! If you are a user, you are [also a]pusher. You have to [establish]connect[ion][with]somebody to finance the [drug]fix,” he claimed.

Drawback

 Duterte was unfazed by the killings and said his intensified anti-drug campaign won’t spare anybody, including the poor.

“They (critics) would want to make it appear that just because this guy is poor, therefore, he should not be made accountable to law but placed in a hospital,” he said.

“In this planet, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you see drugs as a viable livelihood, there will always be a drawback,” the President said.
Duterte rejects claims that he is inciting genocide with his anti-drug campaign.