(ANTIMEDIA) Philippines — On Wednesday — a day after it was leaked that during a phone call last month Donald Trump praised Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for doing an “excellent job” with his country’s war on drugs — it was reported that the Southeast Asian leader is thinking of declaring full martial law in the name of fighting terrorism.
From CNN:
“Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said his martial law declaration for the country’s restive south could be expanded ‘throughout the country’ in order to combat the rise of ISIS.”
The current order affects only a southern group of islands and was declared Tuesday after clashes broke out between militants and government troops. Citing the violence, Duterte, who cut short a visit to Russia to fly home, says it’s his duty as a leader to provide safety for his citizens.
“I had to declare martial law in the Mindanao group of islands,” the president said at a news conference in Manila. “It is our constitutional duty to enforce the law and provide security.”
It was Tuesday that three government troops died and 12 others were injured when militants reportedly took over several state buildings, torched others — including a school, a jail, and a church — and took hostages.
As the world has just witnessed with the attack in Manchester, the governments’ responses to acts of terror are almost universally the same: lock it down. From Reuters on Tuesday:
“Countries across the world will tighten security ahead of major cultural and sports events after a suicide bombing in Britain that killed at least 22 people, but experts say reinforced measures will do little to prevent determined individuals.”
President Duterte — if he makes good on his proposition of full martial law — appears willing to take this philosophy to the extreme. Perhaps this should come as no surprise, however, given the man’s documented history of what many find to be human rights abuses.
This is why so many people were offended this week after The Intercept published the transcript of a phone call between Duterte and Donald Trump. During that call, which took place April 29, the U.S. president said the Filipino leader was doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem” in his country.
“You are a good man,” Trump says to Duterte. “Keep up the good work. You are doing an amazing job.”
Duterte thanked Trump for his kind words, saying drugs are the “scourge of my nation now and I have to do something to preserve the Filipino nation.”
That “something” Duterte referred has been taking place since his election in June and was summarized by The Intercept in its reporting on the April conversation:
“Police have killed over 7,000 people, devastated poor areas of Manila and other cities, and used the drug war as a pretext to murder government officials and community leaders.”
Duterte’s version of a war on drugs has been roundly condemned by the United Nations, and even Trump’s own State Department acknowledges thousands of “extrajudicial killings” in the Philippines — saying it’s the country’s “chief human rights concern.”
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