The United States government has donated an amount of $32 Million to the South East Asian nation, the Philippines, to boost the country’s recent policy of the so-called War on Drugs.
According to statistics from the Philippine National Police, a total of 239 drug suspects were killed in law enforcement operations as of July 22nd, 2016 since the country’s new President Rodrigo Duterte took power this June. Other sources put the number of those killed at over 440. It is also said the death toll is increasing on daily basis. The killings are said to be carrying out by the police and vigilante groups, who have the full backing of the Duterte government to crackdown on suspected drug dealers.
The security forces have also reportedly arrested more than 120,000 people suspected of dealing in drugs. These people are reportedly being held in secret detention centers, as Mr Duterte prepares concentration camps for them. Human rights groups have expressed serious concerns against the summary executions and arrests being carried out by the Philippine government.
However, during a visit to the country by the United States Secretary of States, John Kerry announced that the United States is firmly behind the Philippines. At the Malacañan presidential palace in Manila, where Mr Kerry met President Duterte, he promised the United States support for the Philippines, on its crackdown on drug dealers in the country.
“I speak for President Obama and his entire administration when I say that we look forward to working with President Duterte,” Kerry said.
The United States has several military bases in the Philippines, and has been eyeing the disputed South China Sea between China and the Philippines. On July 12th, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague ruled that China’s nine-dash-line claim in the Sea was invalid, and its land reclamation activities on islets also are unlawful. Despite the ruling in favor of the Philippines, China has vowed to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty over the South China Sea, revealing that it had the right to set up an air defense zone on the sea.
According to observers, the United States wants to use the Chinese response to the PCA ruling to escalate the situation, hoping that the Philippines could go to war against China over the Sea. It is believed the United States has supplied faulty intelligence to the Philippines over the Chinese deliberately supplying drugs into the Philippines to destabilize it. This is said to have angered President Duterte, now acting on his crackdown.
Just after Duterte met Kerry, he reportedly held an emergency meeting with mayors of major cities and governors of provinces, telling them the money the country has received from the United States.
Duterte told those present at the meeting: “A country friend of ours has provided us with intercepts which revealed that the transshipment of drugs in the Philippines came from China.”
He claimed that the evidence supplied to him revealed the Chinese are using drug money to buy judges, fiscals, the police, mayors and governors in the country.
Duterte then revealed that large portion of the money received from Washington will be spent on building military detention centers, where those arrested dealing in drugs will be kept permanently. The facilities will be barracks with high wire encampments.
“Anyone who is no longer of service to humanity would be detained. We don’t need a legal basis for this,” Mr Duterte reportedly said, referring suspected drug dealers to as people no longer of service to humanity.
President Duterte also said he is not considering going to war against China, but added that everything is possible if his country is pushed to the limit. He said: “I want to confront China over this. We can’t start a war with China, but if they invade us that’s a different matter.”
Commenting on the development in the region, socialist political commentators say the United States wants to create confusion in the region between China and the Philippines, which will open the stage for a direct military conflict in South East Asia once again, the last being the Vietnam War.
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