{"id":47147,"date":"2017-10-12T07:51:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T07:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=47147"},"modified":"2017-10-12T07:51:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T07:51:29","slug":"duterte-pulls-police-off-controversial-drugs-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/duterte-pulls-police-off-controversial-drugs-crackdown.html","title":{"rendered":"Duterte pulls police off controversial drugs crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duterte pulls police off controversial drugs crackdown<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Duterte pulls police off controversial drugs crackdown:- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has demoted the country’s police from leading his drugs war, amid growing criticism of the bloody crackdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

The country’s Drugs Enforcement Agency will take charge of operations instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Police say they have killed over 3,850 people in anti-drugs operations since Mr Duterte took office last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

In January, he also suspended police from the war on drugs, calling them “corrupt” – but reinstated them again shortly afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n

That suspension came after a South Korean businessman was kidnapped and killed by anti-drug police.<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman who kills drug dealers for a living<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Duterte was elected last summer on a hardline platform promising to fight drugs, crime and corruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

His policy of endorsing extrajudicial killings in the war against drugs has drawn widespread international condemnation and also led to criticism within the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

In September, thousands attended rallies criticising his war on drugs – although thousands of others attended rival pro-Duterte rallies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Changing mood music<\/span><\/p>\n

Analysis by the BBC’s Howard Johnson in Manila<\/span><\/p>\n

What we’re seeing at the moment is an attempt by the government to restructure its war on drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n

A summer of bad headlines, notably the killing of three teenagers by the Philippine National Police (PNP) force, sparked street protests and condemnation from the Catholic Church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last month the killings of drug suspects have seemingly slowed down while the PNP has launched a community drug rehabilitation programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mood music is also changing. The PNP said last week of the 6,225 drug-related deaths during its operations not one of them was an extra-judicial killing, while the president’s long-term partner, Cielito “Honeylet” Avance\u00f1ahas, said she believed he would never order the police to kill drug addicts.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s all a far cry from the early days of President Duterte’s term in office when he said: “There’s three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The most high-profile controversy this summer involved a boy killed in Caloocan on 16 August.<\/span><\/p>\n

Police said the 17-year old ran from them and then opened fire, so they shot him. Yet his parents denied he had any involvement in drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n

A witness said police tried to force a gun into his hand and CCTV footage shows a boy, said to be him, being dragged away by police, contradicting claims he ran.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a consequence, the police said 1,200 officers from the capital Manila would be retrained and then assigned to other units.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Mr Duterte still enjoys widespread support, a fresh poll this weekend showed trust and satisfaction in the president drop to the lowest levels since the start of his term.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Thursday, relatives of two people killed by police filed a case in the country’s supreme court calling for the drug war to be declared illegal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-41591534<\/span><\/p>\n

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