Mixed feelings in Philippines on Duterte's first 100 days in office

Record ID: 84679

  • Title: Mixed feelings in Philippines on Duterte's first 100 days in office
  • Date: 5th October 2016
  • Summary: MANILA, PHILIPPINES (FILE - 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLICE PUTTING PEOPLE INSIDE POLICE CAR POLICE CAR DRIVING AWAY
  • Embargoed: 20th October 2016 09:50
  • Keywords: Philippines Duterte 100 days Filipinos drugs campaign attacks crime
  • Location: MANILA, DAVAO CITY, PHILIPPINES
  • City: MANILA, DAVAO CITY, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA00252Q9C91
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY SHOT IN 4:3
    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITY IN SHOT 22
    Philippines' crime-busting President Rodrigo Duterte will mark his 100th day as President on Saturday (October 8), three months since he campaigned for and launched a crackdown on illegal drugs.
    Duterte swept to power in May on promises to wipe out crime and corruption within six months, pledging to wage a war on drug dealers and crush widespread addiction in a country of 100 million.
    Since June 30, Duterte's war on drugs has seen at least 20,000 arrests and has led to more than 3,400 people being killed in just over three months.
    Duterte spent 22 years as mayor in Davao City, where his tough stance on crime has ensured Davao has been spared the kind of violence that has dogged other areas.
    In Manila, office worker Mary Jane Roquino said she supports Duterte's anti-drugs campaign even though her 21-year-old brother was caught in a drug bust operation.
    She said she feels safe walking alone in the city.
    "More or less I feel really safe when I go home now. Actually when I go home, it's no longer scary like before when you walk on the road you have to have someone with you, not just yourself," she said.
    Others said they disagreed with Duterte's policy, and that it doesn't address the root cause of narcotics addiction.
    Tailor Denver Rollon, who lives near Roquino, said Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs is necessary but expressed alarm at how police and unknown assailants kill suspected drug users and dealers.
    "What if the person you shoot is oops, wrong, who has seven kids to feed and enroll in school, has a spouse who's sick, a child who's sick. You will shoot them, then will you come back to help? It's foolishness!," he said.
    Duterte, who has been criticized by human rights groups for his take-no-prisoner policy on illegal drugs, has repeatedly encouraged police officers to shoot addicts should they resist arrest.
    Duterte said he had been portrayed by critics as being "a cousin of Hitler" and said he would "be happy to slaughter" three million Filipino drug users and peddlers.
    The United States and the European Union has criticized Duterte's "disregard for human rights and due process" in his war on drugs, criticisms which were met with expletives.
    Political analyst Ramon Casiple said should negative sentiments about the crackdown on illegal drugs continue, it might affect the rest of his presidential term.
    "Lowering of his popular support, he may open himself to destabilization because that is already part of the current scenario. I don't think there ever was a 100-day honeymoon," he said.
    Angered by U.S. expressions of concern over his war on drugs, Duterte has called President Barack Obama a "son of a bitch," threatened to call off joint military exercises with Washington and started to contrast the former colonial power with its geopolitical rivals Russia and China.
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