PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday night that he would confront China about the involvement of Chinese officials in the illegal drug trade once “bigger issues” such as the country’s territorial dispute over the South China Sea are settled.
Duterte’s statement came as a recent Social Weather Stations survey showed that a majority of Filipinos distrusted China.
“When I come face to face with them, I will tell them all that is bothering me,” Duterte said in Filipino at a gathering of his San Beda College of Law classmates in Malacañang.
Duterte recently accused five police generals of protecting three big-time Chinese-Filipino drug lords.
At the Palace, he also noted that four Hong Kong nationals were arrested when police raided “floating shabu laboratories” in waters off Subic.
“They were cooking shabu on board Chinese-registered ships,” Duterte said. “[We will deal with this] at the proper time, but not now.”
He promised to exercise restraint in his dealings with China.
The Philippines recently won its arbitration case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which invalidated China’s nine-dash line claims.
In an SWS survey conducted from June 24-27, 51 percent of 1,200 respondents said they had “little trust” in China, while 19 percent said they were undecided. Only 27 percent said they had “much trust” in Beijing.
SWS said China’s net trust rating has been positive in only seven out of 39 surveys from 1994 to 2016, ranging from the “neutral” +3 in September 2002 to the record-high “moderate” +17 in June 2010.
The second quarter SWS survey, with sampling error margins of ±3 percent, was conducted a little more than two weeks ahead of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s July 12 ruling on a case filed by the Philippines against China in 2013.
On Monday, former secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government Rafael Alunan said the illegal drug trade in the Philippines is now a national crisis, and the government and the public must understand it to know what they are up against.
“This is national security crisis and we better understand what we are up against so we can do something about it,” Alunan said in a forum.
“The illegal drugs industry is a P500 billion a year business and 30 percent goes to bribery to police, and national and local officials, including the criminal justice system. That’s P150 billion [for bribery]. That is no joke. That’s enough money to control the government and to ensure continuity of your business,” Alunan said.
Reports said that there are about 85,000 drug users and pushers who have surrendered nationwide to the government.
“We have to clean house. I do not know if a law is needed or legislation is needed to be passed. But I think every branch of government, every level of government, every institution must have regular or periodic drug tests for everybody,” he said.
“Whether you are talking about the executive or legislative branch, or judiciary, including the uniformed services, we all need drug tests. And anybody who fails it should be ejected and charged in court. That’s one thing that we need to do to fight this drug menace,” he said.
Lawyer Persida Acosta, chief of the Public Attorneys Office, reiterated her support for President Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine National Police to rid the country of drugs addicts and pushers.
As the death toll in the police campaign against drug abuse rose, Acosta said in most cases, those who were killed were resisting arrests.
“They will fight. Police only kill the suspects if they fight during a legitimate operation,” Acosta added.
The Philippine National Police has recorded close to 200 drug-related deaths since President Rodrigo Duterte won in the May elections and PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, considers the rising number of killings as an “accomplishment.”
Data from the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management said some 192 individuals were killed in drug operations from May 10 until July 10.
The highest number of deaths was recorded by the Calabarzon Police Regional Office (PRO-4A) with 57 suspects killed. At second was the Central Luzon Police Regional Office (PRO-3) with 46 deaths.
Third highest drug-related deaths came from Metro Manila with 21 persons killed in police operations in two months.
“We consider that as an accomplishment if they are part of legitimate police operations,” Dela Rosa said.
Maintaining that the killings were legitimate, Dela Rosa blamed the drug suspects killed for resisting arrest.