PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said illegal drugs and corruption have remained despite reforms being made by the government.
“While we were busy instituting reforms between ogres of illegal drugs and corruption laid low for a while only to resurface as still with us and make no mistake about it,” Duterte said in his last State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“Corruption is but another term of stealing people’s money dashing in its way in the nation’s goals and aspirations,” he added.
Back in 2016, then Davao City Mayor Duterte vowed to rid the country of illegal drugs in three to six months. Upon assumption, the President ordered a massive crackdown on the illegal drug trade and substance abuse resulting in the death of at least 6,000 persons, based on government statistics.
Latest government records showed that a total of 203,715 drug operations have been conducted. These drug stings saw 6,147 drug suspects killed. The drug war also got to arrest 293,841 individuals, 12,356 of which were high-value targets.
With a pattern as to how the drug suspects were killed, Duterte found himself at the receiving end of criticisms by local and international human rights groups.
Duterte’s drug war, according to critics, have resulted in over 20,000 deaths, most of which were not thoroughly investigated.