Help in drug war, dont just

criticize, Duterte tells

Church
By: Allan Nawal, Frinston Lim - @inquirerdotnet
Inquirer Mindanao / 01:23 PM September 23, 2017

Relatives of drug war victims gather for the second Holy Eucharistic Mass Action on
Thursday, March 2, 2017. (Photo by YUJI VINCENT GONZALES/INQUIRER.NET)

DAVAO CITY President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said he will one day give his
narcolist to priests and bishops and will ask them to talk to drug personalities included
in it.

He said priests would probably be able to help because they are their parishioners.

These priests, they easily condemn (the governments anti-drug war), the President
said during a Malacaang-sponsored dinner for media members here.
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It was the third get-together that the President had sponsored for the media, one for
journalists here and two for the Malacaang Press Corp.

You go to these people (drug suspects) and tell them to stop already. You have the
money to do that. Thats your job (also), Duterte said, addressing the Catholic clergy
which has been high-critical of his anti-drugs war and the deaths of 13,000 individuals
linked to illegal drugs.

READ: Church calls for end to drug killings

They are alive, you talk to them and tell them they would end up in a very serious
situation if they continued, he added.
Duterte said the Catholic church could do this preemptive move if priests and bishops
wanted to help.

Also talk to the barangay captains (who are into drugs), he said.

Duterte then explained that village chairs were not in the forefront of his anti-drugs
campaign because 40 percent of them are involved in drugs.

You see? Thats how serious the problem is, he added.

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We are now a narco-state. You ask why I did not tap the barangay captains (village
chiefs)? I cannot trust the idiots anymore. Forty percent of the barangay captains are
into illegal drugs, Duterte said.

He said because of this, he had to use the military in the anti-drugs campaign and his
orders were clear: to dismantle a drug factory and go after every drug suspect.

But Duterte said his order did not include killing drug suspects unless they put up a
violent fight.

I dont need to tell the military and the police to do that. They know what to do, he
said.

That was why, Duterte said, the killing of drug suspects, particularly children, was not
his policy.

You can ask the military or the police in Manila if I ordered them to (kill drug
suspects). If anyone of them stand up and say I ordered them to kill the poor and the
children, I would resign because that would make me a liar, thats the truth, he added.

He said the Catholic church would always find fault in his campaign because they have
irreconcilable positions on how to deal with drug criminals.

READ: Duterte hits Church silence on killing rampage of drug addicts

Unless they understand my duty, its better for us not to talk of reconciling those two
positions because those were irreconcilable. For them its pity and not hatred. No
response. But the law is not like that. It takes pity on you but at the same time punishes
by jailing you, Duterte added.

He said the anti-drug campaign was not also specific for the poor.

I am here to enforce the law. There is nothing there that says except the criminal has
no income or is very poor, he is exempted (from liability), Duterte said.

He said as an organized crime, all those involved in the drug business were equally
liable and everyone was a co-conspirator.

And the act of one is the act of all. Loosely-bound but still organized. There are those
who cook the drugs, there are lieutenants to see to it the distribution is done, and (there
are) the peddlers, he said, adding that (t)he liability of the high is the liability of the
low there.

The President also pointed out drug syndicates were using the law on juvenile
delinquents to their advantage by tapping minors as runners, calling Republic Act 9344
of opposition Senator Francis Kiko Pangilinan a short-sighted law.

The runner, did it not surprise you? I m not talking of a particular case, did it not
occur to your mind that there are a lot of children (on the lowest level of the drugs
trade)? he asked.

He said the problem with the Pangilinan Law was that it acknowledged the social
problem on juvenile delinquents but did not specify the measure in solving it.

Duterte also spoke of his desire to amend the Pangilinan Law.

A child who commits a crime whatever, they go scot-free, no criminal liability at all.
Not even a recording on the police blotter. What is recorded in the blotter (is)
unidentified (suspect). So why would a policeman bother to make arrests? The law then
was that below 9, there was no liability, (the suspect) is a baby. Above 9 but below 12,
you determine if malice is there, he said.
Duterte said the Pangilinan Law had resulted in generations and generations of
Filipinos who are criminals and do not have a sense of accountability.

He reiterated that his anti-drug war would continue.

It does not delineate between the poor and the rich, I am not about to do it. I do not
play God, he added.

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