Drug users who surrender to police could hit one million by end of September
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday that the number of drug users and pushers who would "surrender" to authorities could reach one million by the end of September.
Duterte made the projection during his visit at the Philippine National Police Regional Office 12 in General Santos City .
From about 700,000 drug users and pushers who turned themselves in to the Philippine National Police since he assumed office on June 30, Duterte said, "it gonna reach one million mark by the end of this month."
The military announced Thursday it opened a two-hectare facility to rehabilitate drug users in an army camp in Agusan del Norte. Ten hectares have also been set aside by the military in Fort Magsaysay , Nueva Ecija as a rehabilitation facility.
Duterte again defended his administration's war against illegal drugs as he insisted that it was a "bullshit" to blame all those killings of suspected drug personalities to his administration, particularly to the policemen.
"Didn't they know that there were also police generals who were involved (in illegal drugs) and they are killing each other?," Duterte said, adding those involved in the drug trade were on the "silencing stage."
Duterte earlier disclosed five police active and retired generals were protectors of drug syndicates.
The United Nations, European Union, the United States and other human rights groups have been criticizing Duterte on the alleged extrajudicial killings involving drug suspects.
Over 3,000 suspected drug personalities have been killed in the government's all-out war against the menace. Most of the fatalities were allegedly done by vigilantes.
Duterte has invited the UN and EU to come to the Philippines to investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings, provided that the government's side would also be heard.
In the same speech in General Santos City, Duterte said US President Barack Obama is invited if he wants to see the situation in the Philippines .
Obama has also raised concern over alleged extrajudicial killings and because of this, Duterte made some expletives against him, resulting to the cancellation of their supposed first bilateral meeting during the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Laos early this month.
In front of the policemen in Region 12, Duterte lectured how law enforcers could be absolved from killing someone and how they could also be held liable.
He said when cops were doing their duty and they happened to encounter a criminal and while pursuing the suspect, they happened to hit civilians, they would be absolved from the crime. The civilians become"collateral damage," he said.
But if the incident happened while they are not on duty and law enforcers engaged in altercation and cause injury or death to others, then they are responsible for the consequences, he said Celerina Monte, Robina Asido
