Ronald dela Rosa says: ‘Why don’t you give them a visit, pour gasoline on their homes and set these on fire?’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Philippines’ police chief has called on drug users to kill traffickers and burn their homes, escalating the president’s deeply controversial campaign against drugs, which has claimed about 2,000 lives.

“Why don’t you give them a visit, pour gasoline on their homes and set these on fire to register your anger,” Ronald dela Rosa said in a speech aired on television on Friday.

“They’re all enjoying your money, money that destroyed your brain. You know who the drug lords are. Would you like to kill them? Go ahead. Killing them is allowed because you are the victim.”

Dela Rosa was speaking on Thursday to several hundred drug users who had surrendered in the central Philippines. His comments followed those of the president, Rodrigo Duterte, which have sparked criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups.

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Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide on a vow to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals in an unprecedented blitz that he claimed would eliminate illegal drugs in six months.

He promised on the campaign trail that 100,000 people would be killed and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

Days after his election win, Duterte also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers.

When he took office on 30 June, Duterte told a crowd in Manila: “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.”

The UN special rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard, said such directives “amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law”.

However, Dela Rosa and Duterte have insisted they are working within the law and their aides have dismissed some of their comments as merely “hyperbole” meant to scare drug traffickers.

After a barrage of bad headlines, Dela Rosa on Friday apologised for his remarks the previous day and described them as an “emotional outburst”.

“I said that because I felt so bad. I was in front of those poor people, pushers and users. They looked like zombies. I was so mad. That’s why I said that,” he told reporters.

“I’m sorry if I said something unpleasant. Many people are reacting. I am very sorry. I am just a human being who gets mad.”

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When asked earlier on Friday if Duterte supported Dela Rosa’s call to murder and commit arson, the presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella denied that that was the police chief’s intent.

“There is no such call. It’s a passionate statement,” Abella said, without elaborating.

Dela Rosa told a senate inquiry this week that the number of people confirmed as having died in the drug war was 1,946. He said police had shot dead 756 suspects in self-defence.

He said there were another 1,190 killings under investigation, but they were probably due to drug gangs murdering people who could implicate each other. He also emphasised that the crime war had so far been a success.

“I admit many are dying but our campaign, now, we have the momentum,” he told the senate.

Many Filipinos continue to support Duterte, accepting his argument that drastic measures are needed to stop the Philippines becoming a “narco state”.

But criticism has continued to mount, with fears that security forces and hired assassins are roaming out of control and killing anyone suspected of being involved in drugs or for other reasons.

The US government on Monday expressed its concern about “reports of extrajudicial killings”.

Local media have also reported a growing number of children who have been killed in the crossfire.

Human Rights Watch released a statement condemning the death of a five-year-old girl who was shot this week when unknown gunmen reportedly entered her home and tried to kill her grandfather, an alleged drug user, who was wounded.

Phelim Kine, the US-based group’s Asia deputy director, said in a statement: “Duterte’s aggressive rhetoric advocating violent, extrajudicial solutions to crime in the Philippines has found willing takers.”