Duterte agrees with Marcos' view on his anti-drug policy
Former President Rodrigo Duterte agreed with incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s statement there were abuses carried out during his administration’s controversial War on Drugs, but clarified that they were ''never intended''.
“He was right that along the way, in the enforcement of the law, a rigid attitude towards the enforcement of the law, abuses will be committed,” Duterte said in his program Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa aired on SMNI News last May 9.
“Now, I’ll say this, I’ll go further. Not only abuses, sometimes killing unnecessarily or even an innocent person. Along the way, there will be lots of collateral damage. Those were never intended, I am sure, by the law enforcement agency,” he added.
In a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington earlier this month, Marcos said that Duterte’s anti-drug campaign was too focused on enforcement which caused the “abuses by certain elements of the government.”
“What had happened in the previous administration is that we focused very much on enforcement. And because of that, it could be said there were abuses by certain elements of the government that has caused some concern in many quarters about the human rights situation in the Philippines,” Marcos said.
Duterte said he was sure Marcos did not mean to criticize him, especially since he had heard the context of the whole speech.
“I am not sure if he was quoted in the complete context of the statement. I am sure it was not meant to criticize me because he knows how hard it is to be president. He is facing a serious problem right now. But what am I supposed to do? I cannot be a libertarian. I can only be a stoic human being dedicated to enforce the law because you are the implementors, you are the enforcers,” he said.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on January allowed its prosecution’s court office to resume its probe into the drug war.
During his term, Duterte decided to withdraw the Philippines from the ICC in 2019.
Marcos earlier said that the country will no longer engage with the ICC and does not recognize its jurisdiction. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
