March 30, 2022
MANILA — Give rights advocates and the International Criminal Court (ICC) data on the volume of illegal drugs seized in the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte gave that order on Tuesday to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and other law enforcement agencies during his weekly taped “Talk to the People” briefing.
“Give just one report, maybe from PDEA — all the data that were provided by different law enforcement agencies. And give it to the human rights advocates, those who bring the ICC,” Duterte said, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino.
“Then give them a copy of [the report] on how many tons of shabu [that is, crystal meth] that flood the Philippines every day,” he added.
The ICC, he went on, should then ”ponder about the younger Filipino generation” who use ecstasy and other illegal cocktail drugs.
“So they’ll know, in spite or despite our [working] double-time, how grave [the problem is], that there is really still a lot [of illegal drugs],” Duterte said.
“‘Those tons [of drugs] that got in, it will be distributed all throughout the country, and fundamentally it is really something that is very very deleterious to the human body,” he added.
According to him, giving the data should make the ICC and rights advocates understand his sentiments on illegal drugs, especially of how many Filipinos use crystal meth every day.
“You are here in the Philippines. So study. You can have access to all available information regarding the situational condition of my country,” he said.
Last year, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber allowed the Office of the Prosecutor to do a full-blown investigation of the crimes against humanity case filed against Duterte in connection with his bloody drug war.
Some rights groups estimate that 12,000 to 13,000 individuals have been killed in drug war operations.
A study done by the University of the Philippines in 2021 revealed that the drug war had killed an average of two people each day.