Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday "plenty will be killed" before the end of his campaign against illegal drugs that has led to the death of about 2,400 people since he became president two months ago.

"Plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue," Duterte told reporters before leaving for a regional summit on Laos. </s> An average of 44 people are being killed each day in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on crime, according to police data released Tuesday that showed the death toll surging to nearly 3,000.

The new figures came after Duterte vowed on Monday to defy a wave of international condemnation and continue killing until every drug trafficker in the Philippines was dead.

"More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets," said Duterte, who scored a landslide election victory in May largely on his promise to fight crime.

"Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue and I will continue."

Police have killed 1,033 people in anti-drug operations since Duterte was sworn into office just over two months ago, according to the national police update on Tuesday.

Another 1,894 people have died in unexplained deaths, police said, which rights groups believe are largely due to out-of-control security forces and hired assassins.

The total of 2,927 is more than 500 higher than the figure released by police on Sunday, and equates to an average of 44 a day since Duterte took office on June 30.

US President Barack Obama was planning to raise concerns about the war on crime with Duterte at a meeting in Laos on Tuesday afternoon.

But Obama cancelled the meeting after Duterte warned he would not be lectured to, and branded the US president a "son of a whore".

Philippine police insist they are killing only in self defence.

"They have guns, they are drug-crazed. Our policemen are just defending themselves," national police spokesman Dionardo Carlos told AFP.

Police chief Ronald dela Rosa has also regularly said the unexplained deaths are due to drug syndicates waging war against each other, rather than extrajudicial killings by vigilantes and others.

Still, Duterte has promised to protect police from prosecution if they are charged over the deaths and insisted human rights cannot get in the way of his war.

He has also urged ordinary Filipinos to kill drug addicts in their communities.

Dela Rosa last month called for drug addicts to kill traffickers and burn down their homes.

The United Nations special rapporteur on summary executions has warned incitement to kill is a crime under international law.

But Duterte has told the United Nations not to interfere and said he will use all means necessary to eradicate drugs in society, which he insists is the nation's biggest problem. </s> MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday vowed to forge on with his controversial war on drugs and said no amount of criticism or international pressure would deter him.

Delivering his annual State of the Nation address, Duterte said his critics at home and abroad should focus on using their influence to educate Filipinos of the ills of illicit drugs.

"No matter how long it takes, the fight against illegal drugs will continue because that is the root cause of so much evil and so much suffering," Duterte told lawmakers from both houses of Congress.



"The fight will be unremitting as it will be unrelenting," he said. "There is a jungle out there, there are beasts out there preying on the innocent, the helpless."

Duterte swept to victory in last year's presidential elections after promising an unprecedented crackdown on drugs in which tens of thousands of people would die.

Since he took office on Jun 30 last year, police have reported killing nearly 3,200 people in the drug war.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes, according to police data. Rights groups say many of those victims have been killed by vigilante death squads linked to the government.

Duterte on Monday also urged lawmakers to reintroduce the death penalty.

"I ask Congress to act on legislation to reimpose the death penalty on heinous crimes, especially illegal drug trafficking," Duterte said.

He emphasised that capital punishment was about "retribution" as much as deterrence.

"In the Philippines, it is really an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You took a life, you must pay it to die. That is the only way to get even."

The lower house of Congress this year passed a bill to bring back the death penalty, but the Senate has yet to approve it. </s> Police records and data gathered by Al Jazeera show close to 6,000 killed since new president took office on June 30.

*This story was first published on August 25. Last updated on December 13.

*Police records show 5,882 people were killed across the country since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30. Of that number 2,041 drug suspects were killed during police operations from July 1 to December 6, while another 3,841 were killed by unknown gunmen from July 1 to November 30, according to a local website. Among the latest fatalities was a seven-year-old child on the island of Cebu, who was hit by a stray bullet on December 3, while unknown gunmen were chasing a teenage boy accused of selling drugs.

*Based on other sources collected by Al Jazeera, there have been an estimated 5,946 deaths. The number does not include cases still to be reported by police or news outlets in the provinces after December 6.

*Al Jazeera has gathered the information of 1,485 people who were killed and the cause of their deaths.

Almost six months into the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, police records and data gathered by Al Jazeera show the death toll in his anti-drug war has almost reached 6,000.

Despite the mounting toll, Duterte was quoted as saying on Monday that fewer people were being killed, adding "most of them have been finished off anyway, I am not kidding".

On Tuesday, he announced the release of $20m to fund the medicine for patients undergoing drug rehabilitation.

Recently, human rights groups and activists have denounced the Philippine leader for "steamrolling the rule of law".

Top clerics of the Catholic Church have also stepped up criticism against Duterte's drug war policy, while expressing opposition to his plan to re-impose the death penalty on heinous crimes, including drug-related offences.

INFOGRAPHIC: Who's liable for the mounting death toll?

In August, Duterte hailed his anti-drug campaign saying of the three million suspected drug dependents in the country, 600,000 have turned themselves in to authorities.

While saying it does not condone extra-judicial killings, the office of the president said the country should "seize the momentum" in its campaign against illegal drugs.

Duterte took his oath as president on June 30 and has vowed to keep his campaign promise of solving the country's illegal drug problem, saying, "I don't care about human rights, believe me."

As of December 13, an Al Jazeera investigation has collected information from 1,485 people who were killed across the country. </s> Philippines' Duterte says "plenty will be killed" in anti-drugs drive

DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday "plenty will be killed" before the end of his campaign against illegal drugs that has led to the death of about 2,400 people since he became president two months ago.

Duterte will meet Barack Obama at a regional summit in Laos on Tuesday, although he has made it clear he will take no lecture on human rights from the U.S. president.

"Plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue," Duterte told reporters before leaving for Laos.

Police say about 900 of those killed died in police operations, and the rest were "deaths under investigation", a term human rights activists say is a euphemism for vigilante and extrajudicial killings.

Duterte, a former crime-busting mayor of southern Davao city, won the presidency in May promising to suppress crime and wipe out drugs and drug dealers.

While his campaign has won popular support, the killings have alarmed rights groups and brought expressions of concern from the United States, a former colonial power and a close Philippine ally, and the United Nations.

"I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony," Duterte said, when asked about his meeting with Obama.

"Who is he to confront me? As a matter of fact, America has one too many to answer for," he said.

"Everybody has a terrible record of extrajudicial killings."

He earlier lambasted the United Nations after it criticised the surge in killings and he turned down a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the summit in Laos. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Robert Birsel) </s> Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has raised the rhetoric over his bloody anti-crime war to a new level, comparing it to Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust and saying he would be “happy to slaughter” three million addicts.

He issued his latest threat against drug dealers and users early on Friday after returning to his home town in southern Davao city after visiting Vietnam, where he discussed his anti-drugs campaign with Vietnamese leaders and ways for their governments to fight transnational crimes, including illegal substances.

Mr Duterte has said his public death threats against drug suspects are designed to scare them into stopping selling drugs and to discourage would-be users. But his latest remarks took that crime-busting approach to a different level.

“Hitler massacred three million Jews ... there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” he said, referring to a Philippines government estimate of the number of drug addicts in the country.

Historians say six million Jews were killed by the Nazis under Hitler before and during the second World War.

During the presidential election campaign earlier this year and in the three months he has been in office, the tough-talking Mr Duterte has threatened to drown drug suspects to fatten the fish in Manila Bay.

He also threatened to execute drug traffickers by hanging - because he did not want to waste electricity on them - until their heads were severed from their bodies.

While Hitler’s victims were innocent people, Mr Duterte said his targets are “all criminals” and that getting rid of them would “finish the (drug) problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition”.

His campaign promise to end corruption and crimes, especially illegal drugs, within six months of taking office on June 30th carried him to an overwhelming victory in the presidential election.

And since he won the election in May, more than 3,000 suspected drug dealers and users have been killed and nearly 700,000 others have surrendered in his crackdown, but he has asked for a six-month extension to finish the job.

His supporters and many Filipinos exasperated with widespread crime have welcomed his tough approach, but a growing number of critics, including UN officials, the European Union and the United States, have voiced concerns over the widespread killings and human rights violations.

He reacted on Friday by calling critics from the European Union a “group of idiots in the purest form”.

He lashed out at the US, his country’s longtime treaty ally, and the EU for finding fault with his methods, saying European countries were hypocrites for not doing enough to help the large numbers of refugees fleeing from the violence in the Middle East.

“There are migrants escaping from the Middle East. You allow them to rot and then you’re worried about the deaths of about 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 (people in the Philippines).” </s> Manila: The number of drug-related killings in the Philippines since Rodrigo Duterte became president two months ago on a pledge to wipe out the illegal drug trade, has reached around 2000, according to data released on Tuesday.

There has been popular support for his campaign, but the wave of killings unleashed since his election victory has alarmed rights groups and brought expressions of concern from the US, a close ally of Manila.

As officials readied a publicity campaign to explain his fight against narcotics, the Philippines national police said that close to 900 drug traffickers and users had been killed in police operations from July 1 to August 20. That was an increase of 141 people over a week, on average 20 people a day.

Last week the police said 1100 other drug-related killings that were not classified as police operations were also being investigated. No new number for that category was given on Tuesday but, together with the new figure for police encounters, the total came to around 2000.

Duterte won the presidency of the Southeast Asian nation in a May election on a promise to wipe out drugs.

Two UN human rights experts recently urged the Philippines to stop extra-judicial killings, drawing a furious response from Duterte, who threatened to pull his country out of the UN. His foreign minister later rowed back on the threat.

Duterte’s communications secretary, Martin Andanar, said on Monday that a 30-second advertisement explaining the anti-drug campaign would be aired over the next week by commercial and public TV stations and in movie theatres.

“The government is not spending a single centavo on these ads and TV stations are carrying them for free,” Andanar told reporters at an event in a Manila hotel.

This is a war

He said his office would also publish a 40-page pamphlet to explain the rising body count. This would be issued on the president’s first trip abroad next week, first to Brunei and then to an East Asia summit in Laos.

“Some people abroad have to understand why many people are getting killed in the anti-drug campaign. They must understand, this is a war and there are casualties,” Andanar said.

“The pamphlet will inform and explain that the government was not killing people at random, that these killings are not extrajudicial in nature but as part of the anti-crime campaign. Some of those killed were police officers who are involved in criminal activities.”

The White House said on Monday that US President Barack Obama is expected to meet Duterte in Laos on September 6 and plans to touch on human rights as well as security concerns.

Duterte’s crackdown on drugs and some strongly worded criticism he has made of the US, present a dilemma for Washington, which has been seeking to forge unity among allies and partners in Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China, especially in the strategic South China Sea.

There have been few signs in the Philippines itself of a backlash against the war on drugs.

However, on Tuesday a newly formed group called the ‘Stop the Killings Network’ announced a #Lightforlife campaign that would start with simultaneous candle-lighting events on Wednesday evening at six venues across Manila.

(Reuters) </s> MANILA: Police in the Philippine capital shot dead 25 drug suspects in another round of anti-drug raids, authorities said Thursday (Aug 17), as they followed President Rodrigo Duterte's call for dozens of deaths a day.

The killings, carried out in Manila from Wednesday to Thursday morning, came after police shot dead 32 drug suspects in the province neighbouring the capital early in the week in what was billed as a "shock and awe" operation against drug traffickers.

Manila police spokesman Senior Superintendent Erwin Margarejo said the 25 were killed in 18 various operations against drug suspects.

"It is a simultaneous police operation. All the units and stations of MPD (Manila police district) conducted their own operations," Margarejo told AFP.

Duterte on Wednesday praised the killings of the 32 suspects in Bulacan province, describing the operations as "good".

"If we could kill another 32 everyday, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country," Duterte said.

However national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos insisted that officers in Bulacan and Manila had killed only in self-defence.

"Can you blame the police now when the initial action is perpetrated by the suspect?" he said.

Duterte easily won last year's presidential election largely on a vow to kill tens of thousands of drug traffickers and addicts, which he said was necessary to stop the country's slide to narco-state status.

Police have killed more than 3,500 people in drug raids since Duterte came to office in the middle of last year, according to government data.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to the police.

He has also repeatedly assured policemen that he will protect them if they are charged for killing drug suspects as part of his campaign.

Rights groups have warned Duterte, who has said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts, may be orchestrating a crime against humanity.

Wilnor Papa, Philippine human rights officer of Amnesty International, said the apparent uptick in killings this week appeared to be because of Duterte's calls for more deaths.

"Because of the remarks of the president, these kind of killings will go on," Papa told AFP. </s> A Filipino relative weeps near the body of a man who was killed following a police operation against illegal drugs in Manila. (AAP)

Police in the Philippine capital shot dead 25 drug suspects in another round of anti-drug raids, authorities said Thursday, as they followed President Rodrigo Duterte's call for dozens of deaths a day.

The killings, carried out in Manila from Wednesday to Thursday morning, came after police shot dead 32 drug suspects in the province neighbouring the capital early in the week in what was billed as a "shock and awe" operation against drug traffickers.

Manila police spokesman Senior Superintendent Erwin Margarejo said the 25 were killed in 18 various operations against drug suspects.

"It is a simultaneous police operation. All the units and stations of MPD (Manila police district) conducted their own operations," Margarejo told AFP.

Duterte on Wednesday praised the killings of the 32 suspects in Bulacan province, describing the operations as "good".

"If we could kill another 32 everyday, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country," Duterte said.

However national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo Carlos insisted that officers in Bulacan and Manila had killed only in self-defence.

"Can you blame the police now when the initial action is perpetrated by the suspect?" he said.

Duterte easily won last year's presidential election largely on a vow to kill tens of thousands of drug traffickers and addicts, which he said was necessary to stop the country's slide to narco-state status.

Police have killed more than 3,500 people in drug raids since Duterte came to office in the middle of last year, according to government data.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to the police.

He has also repeatedly assured policemen that he will protect them if they are charged for killing drug suspects as part of his campaign.

Rights groups have warned Duterte, who has said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts, may be orchestrating a crime against humanity.

Wilnor Papa, Philippine human rights officer of Amnesty International, said the apparent uptick in killings this week appeared to be because of Duterte's calls for more deaths.

"Because of the remarks of the president, these kind of killings will go on," Papa told AFP.
With 2,400 people dead so far, Rodrigo Duterte, the President of the Philippines, says that "plenty will be killed" in the war against drugs.