In a televised speech on Sunday, President Rodrigo Duterte, speaking in the southern city of Davao, named 150 officials that he said were involved in the country’s drug trade, including members of congress, police officials, five retired and current generals and at least seven judges, and gave them a 24-hour deadline to surrender to police. Several have turned themselves in, including 18 mayors and 31 police officials, according to police statistics.
"There is no due process in my mouth," Duterte said. "You can't stop me, and I'm not afraid even if you say that I can end up in jail."
For the accused, the stakes are high. Duterte, who took office on June 30, has pledged to rid the country of crime within six months by assassinating thousands of suspected criminals — or at least authorizing the police, military, and others to kill them on his behalf.
Since then, at least 564 people have been killed, according to the Philippine Inquirer’s “Kill List,” a comprehensive resource on the drug war’s death toll. Some were killed by vigilantes, others by military and police. Many were found next to signs reading “pusher” or “I am a drug addict,” their heads wrapped in tape.
Despite its brutality, the crackdown has been enormously popular in the Philippines, which has struggled with endemic drug use for decades. Yet human rights groups, foreign governments, other Filipino politicians and church leaders have cautioned that it could undermine the country’s democratic systems.
