External Affairs <\/p>\n
Loved ones and mourners lift up a closed coffin of Arjay Suldao, 16, who according to the local media was a victim of unknown assailants related to the drug war, to place it inside an apartment-type tomb, during his funeral at a cemetery in Navotas city, metro Manila, Philippines March 28, 2017. Credit; Reuters\/Romeo Ranoco\/Files <\/p>\n
Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he was willing to face the music for his war on drugs and a complaint filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) would not stop him pursuing his bloody campaign. <\/p>\n
The former prosecutor said he was man who was true to his word, including wiping out drugs, so he would accept the consequences, even if it meant prison, or death. <\/p>\n
I will continue my campaign I just stood by with my promise, all other politicians they pay lip service to the problem, he told reporters. <\/p>\n
You want to try to do everything to put me in prison, please go ahead if it is my destiny to go to jail then I will go to jail, if somebody will kill me for killing the idiot drug people, so be it, I die. <\/p>\n
Thousands of Filipinos have been killed since Duterteunleashed his ferocious campaign nearly 10 months ago. Police say they have killed only in self-defence, and the deaths of other drug dealers and users was down to vigilantes or narcotics gangs silencing potential witnesses. <\/p>\n
Human rights groups say official accounts are implausible and accuse Duterte of supporting a campaign of systematic extrajudicial killings by police. The government denies that. <\/p>\n
A Philippine lawyer filed a complaint at the ICC on Monday against Duterte and senior officials for mass murder. The 77-page filing said Duterte repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously committed crimes against humanity. <\/p>\n
The complaint is the first publicly known communication to the ICC against the president and is based on the testimony of two self-confessed hit men who said they had worked underDuterte when he was a mayor, statements from rights groups and media reports, including a Reuters series on the killings. <\/p>\n
Duterte stood by police, and said he had never given an order to commit murder, but to defend themselves if their lives were at risk. <\/p>\n
He dismissed questions about police carrying out extrajudicial killings and appeared to blame criminals for thousands of deaths at the hands of mystery gunmen. <\/p>\n
Of course, who else? he said. <\/p>\n
Duterte also dismissed an editorial in the New York Times on Tuesday that said the ICC should promptly open an investigation into the drugs war. It described Duterte as a man who must be stopped. <\/p>\n
Duterte said it was the newspaper that should be stopped. <\/p>\n
New York Times, assholes, they are assholes, he said. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Visit link:<\/p>\n
Unfazed by ICC Complaint, Philippine's Duterte Vows to Continue War on Drugs - The Wire<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" External Affairs Loved ones and mourners lift up a closed coffin of Arjay Suldao, 16, who according to the local media was a victim of unknown assailants related to the drug war, to place it inside an apartment-type tomb, during his funeral at a cemetery in Navotas city, metro Manila, Philippines March 28, 2017. Credit; Reuters\/Romeo Ranoco\/Files Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he was willing to face the music for his war on drugs and a complaint filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) would not stop him pursuing his bloody campaign Continue reading