This is a war freak President who fails to see where the real enemy lies. And it's in that sense that this speech is emblematic of his presidency," Rappler quoted Sociology professor Jayeel Cornelio as saying Tuesday following Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte late Monday renewing his threat to kill drug dealers in his final state of the nation address.
Cornelio said that while drugs is a problem, COVID-19 is much more consequential and Duterte wasted an opportunity to explain a pandemic plan.
"He has not won this war on drugs, because the problem is still there, but a lot of families have lost their breadwinners," Randy Delos Santos told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Delos Santos is the uncle of 17-year-old Kian, who was shot to death in 2017 by three police officers who were later convicted of murder.
"We're the biggest loser and we still live in fear," Delos Santos said.
To a nation of Filipinos who wanted to hear about new jobs and how the virus can be eradicated, Duterte offered a litany of his anecdotes about the ills of drugs and threats to anyone who gets in his way.
"Duterte has been waging wars on enemies that are not consequential, and then forgetting that there are real problems: Covid, poverty, hunger," Cornelio said.
Duterte spent almost half an hour talking about illegal drugs and communism, and kept circling back to the drug war twice in the middle of other topics.
Human Rights Watch research has found that police are falsifying evidence to justify the unlawful killings. Despite growing calls for an investigation, Duterte has vowed to continue the campaign.
"Since taking office June 30, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a "war on drugs" that has led to the deaths of over 12,000 Filipinos to date, mostly urban poor. At least 2,555 of the killings have been attributed to the Philippine National Police. Duterte and other senior officials have instigated and incited the killings in a campaign that could amount to crimes against humanity," it said.
In his final state of the nation address, Duterte taunted the International Criminal Court to put on record his threat to kill drug peddlers, which he said he would do out of love for country.
"I have never denied, and the ICC can record it: those who destroy my country, I will kill you. And those who destroy the young people of our country, I will kill you...because I love my country," he said Monday, according to Reuters.
Duterte's SONA last year too was panned by critics for lacking a comprehensive pandemic plan after he spent more time ranting about oligarchs and elites.
Meanwhile, Duterte dispelled rumors he was rushed to the hospital, saying he was fine and actually dropped by a restaurant for dinner after delivering his SONA.
"Thank God, I'm not," Duterte told dzBB Radio in the vernacular Tuesday, when asked about his supposed hospitalization at The Medical City.
