[mp3-jplayer tracks=”CounterSpin Amee Chew Full Show @http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin190419.mp3″]
Protest at Philippines consulate in New York (cc photo: VOCAL-NY/Wikimedia)
This week on CounterSpin: A March Washington Post article about Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said:
As of December, more than 5,000 people have been slain because of Duterte’s war on drugs, according to officials. That number, however, is significantly lower than the estimate given by human rights groups, which put the casualties at closer to 12,000 or even 20,000.
Note the passivity of “have been slain,” and the choice to lead with an official death toll, rather than human rights groups’ less self-interested numbers. The “12,000” figure provides a link to a Human Rights Watch report that has never been the subject of a Washington Post news story.
Among many things such reporting wouldn’t lead you to suspect: Two years ago, when the Philippine Senate tried to cut funding for the campaign of state and state-sanctioned violence, for which the toll of “even 20,000” is almost certainly conservative, it was the United States that stepped in with the money to fill the shortfall. That’s a direct line from your tax dollars to the leader who said, “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews…. There’s 3 million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”
Corporate media don’t talk much about the Philippines, much less about the US responsibility there. A recent piece from Foreign Policy in Focus, headlined “It’s Time to End US Military Aid to the Philippines,” filled some of that void. We’ll hear from its author, Mellon-ACLS public fellow Amee Chew, and hear also from two Filipino activist/organizers, Ed Cubelo and Mong Palatino.
Transcript: ‘The War on Drugs Is Just One of Several Being Waged in the Philippines’
Duterte should be blocking the supply of drugs instead killing drug addicts. Even if he slaughter 3 million addicts there will be areplacement for the addicts that will be killed if he does not stop the supply of drugs. Two Philippine officers that he assigned to work at the Bureau of Custom might have advertently or inadvertently let go of the shabu drugs instead of being reprimanded or punish were recycle somewhere else and got promoted. Stop the source instead of killing your own people. Mr president you said you love your country but you kill your people then you are a liar.
Then you are an idiot because you will all owe the drug lords to kill more Filipinos through illegal drugs. I saw it first hand how these people ruined people’s life. Hypocrite people like you are trying to be righteous, because you are blind of what the realities are. You are becoming blind because of your hatred with President Duterte. Long live President Duterte! Kill them all!!
Yes I agree with you Sir William. It’s the duty of our president, for all we know, no other president has done that. Long live my President Rodrigo Roa Duterte!
Long live emperor duterte may he reign for a thousands of years.
Yes he is blind because he didn’t kill enough people. It better to kill them and erase them to existence by the barrel of my gun with no alternative solutions. Long live duterte the messiah…I mean president.
Throw away the law, throw away order. Only idiots would allow anybody to apply punishment without the law, are you one of them??
Really? So you are saying, “if there were a lesser amount of drugs, then there would be less drug addicts and a lesser amount of people your president would like to kill.”? Lesser drugs just means its scarcity will make them more expensive. After drug suppliers and dealers make more money, they will have more money to pay your law enforcement officers, lawyers, and politicians to later move more drug supplies.
If there were less drug addicts, illegal drugs wouldn’t have value which would allow your president to focus on bigger issues. You should think of of the authority to kill drug producers, dealers, and their addicts as assisting with their suicide. If these people cannot be saved, it is because they clearly do NOT care about the lives of others, and, obviously, their own lives. Not counting the dealers and suppliers, what kinds of examples are these 3 million drug addicts to your society? If the lives of all these people are worth more than the future of your country, then let the drug suppliers, dealers, and addicts prevail so your president will no longer be compared to Hitler. Idiots normally gather in large numbers, but if they do smart people gather, they do it in small numbers. Just know which category of people you decide to associate yourself with…
He should live in Latin America.
How can the government easily control these illegal drug traffickers if you don’t help the government of their efforts to get into the drug lords? If you know any effective solutions please help our government rather than criticize our president and worst you are trying to label him as the killer. Do you have any proof he killed them? Be careful you are protecting these drug lords and users indirectly by your claims. And in silent you seemed to be! Why don’t you mind of your own domestic problem? You have bigger problems in your country don’t be naive of telling our president of what to do wherein in your own country you have bigger killings even worst killing than here in the Phil. My God why are this people so blinded by their shortsighted and ill feelings are they not well informed? Or are they just trying to be ignorant? Open your mind and accept others opinion and reasoning, fairness means balance, in ecology how do you balance? There is time to live, a time to die. A time to laugh and a time to cry. A time to be happy, a time to be sad. A time for aquino and a time for D30. There is always a time for everything wait until it is your time to sunshine, ill wait till you sunset…fair enough.
He is killing the drugs dealers m as king the poors addicted to fuel their business
Good job Duterte bl
If there’s no buyers of drugs there would be no suppliers. Drugs addicts are not killed, they’re being asked to undergo rehabilitations at rehab center put up by the gvmt. Those killed are those that fought back on raids. And some policemen inherited by Duterte are themselves part of the problem thus an internal cleansing is happening within PNP. These scalawags are killing their drug runners. Most of the daily crimes are perpetrated by drug addicts. Note that more than 80% of filipinos support Duterte’s campaign. Please before you do all the yakkings study both ends of the situation.
Where’s the fairness then?
In your butthole
Duterte is a murderous liar who is also a dog to China who supplies most of the drugs in the Philippines.
You mean the government of China is supplying drugs to the Philippines?
Activist here in philippines gain money from politicians with self interest especially corrupt, activists could easily earn money but they dont even value the lives of innocent victims of drug dependent.personalities
very true sir.. those activists were the ones who doesnt really care with people… they’re just doing it for their personal interest. hypocrites
Then you are an idiot because you will all owe the drug lords to kill more Filipinos through illegal drugs. I saw it first hand how these people ruined people’s life. Hypocrite people like you are trying to be righteous, because you are blind of what the realities are. You are becoming blind because of your hatred with President Duterte. Long live President Duterte! Kill them all!!
You know nothing about the Philippines, much less about the people who wants to rid this country of corrupt, selfish people like you. Disguised as human rights defender but in reality are just there to make money out of us.
You have a point. The drugs will always be available, so the best solution is to have an informed, intelligent, able, trained, employable
Self aware youth. EASIER SAID THAN DONE – education is low quality and vast overpopulation, 25+ holidays/yr, hampers efficiency.. SO DUTERTE iS RIGHT AND JUSTIFIED TO ATTACK THE DEMAND SIDE AND SUPPLY SIDE. The country is riddled with corruption as a way of life, it will be a long hard fight. Usa keep out of it, unless a US citizen is wrongly accused of a crime..
president cannot block all those drugs because of their very large connections… indeed as a filipino we are proud to say that he kept us ordinary people be safe walking around our surroundings without worrying that those drug suspects will kill or rape the innocent. dont judge us specially if you’re not living on those areas where those persons are playing. thank God we have a president who really thinks more for the filipino.
You seemed to value lives of individual who don’t care of theirs at all not to mention the lives they are taking under the influence. They were warned and given a chance to change, yet they chose the others(drugs) side and take the risk.. and here you are asking for their justice… There are different types of bags… Which one are you? We are living in a time where a country dreamed to have a disciplinarian duterte and we made a decision so folks like you will be spanked… Good luck to your country eyh?!
we dont need your assessment on the Philippine government’s war on drug sirs.our President is leading the best path possible for us Filipinos.if all of you bias people has nothing to do,spare us rather look at your own backyard.surely there are lots to entertain you
This shows how the Fake News media divide us on issues. To those who are anti death penalty on drugs, try bring drugs to Singapore.
These human rights groups anoy me. The people protesting have little to no idea what is going on in the Philippines. They are just protesting to protest something and give there sad lives meaning. Duterte is doing a good job in the Philippines. Manila was a swamp of drugs and crime. Chinese drug lords where kings. People protesting in NYC lol,,, a fine example that place is.
Which you prepare allow those grug addicts to live and allowing them also to hurt good people rape young children and disrepect citizen thas what you people prepared
Then force them to go out instead of wasting your bullets. Don’t be like those american pigs.
Yes he is blind because he didn’t kill enough people. It better to kill them and erase them to existence by the barrel of my gun with no alternative solutions. Long live duterte the messiah…I mean president.
Fake news
Thanks for your concern. But for an insider who hate drugs I applaud what Duterte is doing. You meddle too much and will you mind your own business? You are barking at a wrong tree. Why don’t you look at the survey rather than listening at the opposition’s bickering? Do you know better than us? 3% blabber doesn’t represent the silent majority, otherwise you better review your math. Filipinos voted Duterte for that reason, not because of you rotten meddlers.
The Philippines are lawless and corrupt. There are no real police or any law enforcement that can be relied upon to protect anyone. Money is the only power. Anyone can be paid to do or not do anything. Gov. Officials are weak, corrupt idiots who pay voters to elect them.
Dont worry about the philippines president, worry about to China claiming and taking their land and controlling the entire sea in that part of the world. They need the USA by their side.
Which Philippine land is China claiming, if I may ask?
He is a good reference for a Hollywood movie about an evil dictator… Unfortunately this is the real world & he’s destroying countless lives, one way or another, to feed his inflated arrogant, foul mouth ego…
Those raising placards and demanding PRRD to stop killing drug users and compatriots who stay there to oppose government action against drugs are out of their minds. Come here and be victims of drug crazed addicts so that you will know why the president is getting more popular.
As an expat living in the Philippines with my wife I can tell you the drugs are a major problem here. Its true Duterte has the people scared here. No one dares to even light up a cigarette in public without worrying if someone is going to “shoot to kill” them.
In a country where the Catholic religion is so strong especially with one of the ten commandments being thou shall not kill the only hypocritical people are the ones who are saying kill them all.
My wife’s cousin was murdered in broad daylight here for being suspected of having drugs. He had none. The corrupt police covered up the truth of what happened. The people here too scared to speak out about what happened.
Another neighbor was taken away 10 days ago for Extortion for asking for an extra 2000 pesos for a motor vehicle accident which a policeman sister was involved. He still in jail awaiting bail. The 1987 Constitution here is a joke as none of the judges,police force or politicians abide by it.
If your going to have a shoot to kill policy make sure the police n politicians aren’t corrupt before doing it as many many innocent people are being killed for bonuses and rewards not because they are fighting a drug war.
Education and providing full employment is the key. How that can happen probably needs someone smarter than Duterte as President.
Why not go to the Philippines and investigate HOW MANY KIDS (boy or girl) WERE RAPED, STABBED MANY TIMES? HOW MANY WOMEN AND FAMILY MEMBERS WERE MURDERED by drug addicts? You just hear what d human rights group wants to say.
I witnessed how a relative depended on marijuana for MORE THAN A DECADE. Imagine how it affected ALL our family members from lolo, lola, uncles, aunties and all of us his cousins. I was around in kindergarten that time and the fear of having him around haunted me until I was in college. We love him still JUST LIKE YOU PEOPLE love to defend drug users. But how about me? How about some 2-YEAR-OLDS, 10-YEAR-OLDS, teenagers, even grandmothers whio died
of unthinkable ways. Its not an addict who did those. They are no longer human beings but WORST THAN BEAST. YOU DONT LISTEN WELL to what is happening in my country. Independent public broadcasting???? FAIR???? Now I know what UNFAIR is all about.
Fake News!!
Here are the groups of hypocrite, feeling superior, full of complain Americans. Mind your own business instead of imposing your ideas on another country. Why don’t you count instead the number of drug user Americans who died of drug overdose, number of unborn children killed through legalize abortion in the premise of womens right, number of sex offender raping children/women. I bet you will be amuse how many innocent are killed in your country, instead of focusing on legitimate police operations on illegal drugs in the Phil. which is supported by majority of the Filipinos rather than hearing the complain of the noisy minorities. Wait till you see how the Filipinos will give a zero vote to the liberals who are pro drugs legalization rugs.
If i have to personally slash in half this so called activist and propagandist including you the author of this post,i would take pleasure in doing so, you’re full of shit, you talk about a country as if you know anything and why don’t you just go there and die trying to save those drug driven criminals. .if you know nothing about a country,stop slandering its reputation as if we don’t know you just wanna try to ride the issue to gain readership
MIND YOUR OWN COUNTRY, MIND YOUR OWN COUNTRIES PROBLEM. DON’T STICK TO SOMEONE ELSE’S COUNTRIES PROBLEM.
Address ur own problem in drugs.
Fake news
Your story is half full or in short your coin has only one face.
YOU AMERICANS, STOP MEDDLING WITH OUR COUNTRY! WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER YOUR COLONIZATION! We are a Free Country AND OUR JUSTICE SYSYEM. IS FUNCTIONING PERFECTLY!
What was your source in this article? The FAKE NEWS which was use to brainwash the people and to destabilize our Government? PAID MEDIA WHO ARE BIASED FOR THE YELLOWS!
The Operation Tokhang in the Philippines means “Toktok Hangyo”. Toktok is a Visayan word which means TO KNOCK. Hangyo is the Visayan word for PLEADING or ASKING. That’s why our Police were ordered to go house to house especially on the houses of those reported or known in the communities to be using drugs to KNOCK and to PLEA/ASK the drug addict, user, pusher to SURRENDER peacefully and to undergo rehabilitation Program either to go on a 6 months rehabilition on a Rehab Center or a community rehab (meaning they can stay in their community but undergo a program given by the Department of Health). There were 700,000 people or even more who surrendered PEACEFULLY. But those who are hard headed or those who surrendered and yet returned to the business, some of them were killed during LEGAL POLICE OPERATIONS such as BUY-BUST operations! Not everyone are killed, only those who shoot or retaliate. Those who are caught alive have to face a CASE FILED IN COURT! Pushers who undergo trial are even allowed to do PLEA BARGAINING IN COURT thus instead of being imprisoned for months or years, they would plead guilty for being a USER and thus they are ORDERED TO UNDERGO REHABILITATION at a Rehab Center instead of going to Jail!
LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNITS (Cities, Munipalities and even Barangays) were ordered to CREATE AN ANTI-DRUG ABUSE COUNCIL which will oversee the community rehabilitation. This council is composed of The City Mayor as Chairperson, City Councilors on Social Services, City Councilors on Health, CIty Councilors on Peace and Order, Public Attorney’s Office, Prosecutors Office, Police, Department of Health, Department of Education, Department of Interior and Local Government, RELIGIOUS SECTORS, etc. This council is mandated to conduct a program for surrenderees who undergo community rehab. PRIESTS AND PASTORS are our partners in teaching MORAL VALUES AND SPIRITUAL VALUES to the surenderees.
AND THERE ARE MANY SUCCESS STORIES AND TESTIMONIALS OF LIVES CHANGE! because of Duterte and hi WAR ON DRUGS, people have change and IT IS A LOT SAFER NOW IN OUR COMMUNITIES!
OUR JUSTICE SYTEM IS WORKING VERY WELL!
SO WHAT’S THE CLAMOR ALL ABOUT? WHY IS HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES TAKING ON THE DEFENSE OF THOSE DRUG ADDICTS WHO RAPES AND MURDER INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND YET THEY ARE QUIET WHEN A VICTIM OF RAPE IS MURDERED???
PRESIDENT DUTERTE IS THE PRESIDENT OUR COUNTRY NEEDED AND HE HAS DONE MANY POSITIVE CHANGES IN OUR COUNTRY, yet not so many news or reports about it. BECAUSE THE MASS MEDIA ARE BIASED AND HAVE ALREADY LOST THEIR CREDIBILITY HERE IN OUR COUNTRY! BOOOOOO!
Divide and conquer!
Mostly if not all drugs that were busted came from China! Mostly if not all caught on big drug busts are manned by chinese. Drugs from China are being smuggled by tons. And our bff China doesnt know anything about it? Yeah right!
Why stop at killing drug addicts?
Why not kill all criminals? To rid of crimes!
Why not kill all bad people? To rid of all evils and so that only good will remain! But then who will say who is good or bad? Who lives or who dies? Duterte? PNP? YOU?
Remember what is bad to you maybe good to some and what is good to you maybe bad to others! To you who worship this maniac President, it is us on the other side who are the bad guys and to us it’s vice versa. Now should we start hunting each other now?
Duterte promised 3 mnths, then 6 mnths then 3 yrs to rid of drugs permanently and here we are halfway to his term and yet he said it himself that drugs is more prevalent now than ever. Obviously there is something wrong with his war on drugs. Is’nt it time to rethink of a different approach to solve the problem? Just saying…
Wow. The vicious murdering Duterte supporters have overwhelmed this comment section.