MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that like his fierce critics, he has also suspected that extrajudicial killings may have happened under his drug crackdown that has killed thousands of people.
He said in televised remarks Monday night he had once inquired into the brutal deaths and was told some drug dealers may have been killed due to rivalry among syndicates or for stealing drug money.
More than 5,800 suspects have been killed and 256,000 arrested since Duterte took office in mid-2016. Human rights groups have alleged many of the killings were rub-outs, but Duterte and the police said that most were suspects who were gunned down when they fought back.
Western governments have called for an independent investigation into the killings, which have continued even during the coronavirus pandemic, but Duterte has dismissed such calls as meddling into his country’s affairs.
“This extrajudicial killing, they have been harping for many years. Truthfully, I also suspect, and there was a time when I conducted a discreet hearing,” the brash-talking Duterte said.
“What reached me is that, sometimes, there is a rivalry of the turf,” he said, adding that other drug dealers may have been killed by gangsters for running away with the drugs and the money.
“I know that, whether I like it or not, there is a war going on. I cannot stop the killings, the killing of criminals and the killing of my soldiers and policemen,” he said.
An International Criminal Court prosecutor has been examining complaints of crimes against humanity over the drug killings under Duterte but has not declared whether there is adequate evidence to start a formal inquiry.
Duterte also Tuesday ordered authorities to destroy large volumes of seized drugs in one week, citing past instances when seized drugs were resold by rogue officers. Only a small part of the confiscated drugs should be stored as evidence in ongoing drug trafficking cases, Duterte said, and expressed hope the courts would allow the move. He said he plans to inspect seized drugs stored in warehouses.
“Why do we have to put on our shoulder the burden of keeping a contraband or merchandise that can be stolen and used, and recycled? Duterte asked. “Because of the huge amount of shabu that we cannot guard every day, even one spoonful of it that gets lost, the government will get the blame.”
Shabu is the local name for methamphetamine, a prohibited stimulant widely trafficked in the Philippines. Since his crackdown started in 2016, more than 7,000 kilograms of methamphetamine, with a street value of $1 billion, have been seized, along with smaller quantities of cocaine, marijuana and party drugs, officials said.
Human rights lawyer Edre Olalia said Duterte’s remarks deflect public attention to the failure of his campaign to end the drug problem, which continues significantly, and the massive injustice over the killings of thousands of mostly poor suspects.
“It’s another one of those populist messaging that camouflages the dismal failure of the mailed-fist bloodbath on drugs,” Olalia said.
Philippine president Duterte suspected extrajudicial killings in drug crackdown
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Philippine president Duterte suspected extrajudicial killings in drug crackdown
- More than 5,800 suspects have been killed and 256,000 arrested since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in mid-2016
Judge bars federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Luigi Mangione
- Judge Margaret Garnett’s Friday ruling foiled the Trump administration’s bid to see Mangione executed
- Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge against Mangione, finding it technically flawed. She left in place stalking charges that could carry a life sentence
NEW YORK: Federal prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge ruled Friday, foiling the Trump administration’s bid to see him executed for what it called a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Judge Margaret Garnett dismissed a federal murder charge that had enabled prosecutors to seek capital punishment, finding it technically flawed. She wrote that she did so to “foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment to be considered by the jury” as it weighs whether to convict Mangione.
Garnett also dismissed a gun charge but left in place stalking charges that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. To seek the death penalty, prosecutors needed to show that Mangione killed Thompson while committing another “crime of violence.” Stalking doesn’t fit that definition, Garnett wrote in her opinion, citing case law and legal precedents.
In a win for prosecutors, Garnett ruled they can use evidence collected from his backpack during his arrest, including a 9mm handgun and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to “wack” an insurance executive. Mangione’s lawyers had sought to exclude those items, arguing the search was illegal because police hadn’t yet obtained a warrant.
During a hearing Friday, Garnett gave prosecutors 30 days to update her on whether they’ll appeal her death penalty decision. A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is prosecuting the federal case, declined to comment.
Garnett acknowledged that the decision “may strike the average person — and indeed many lawyers and judges — as tortured and strange, and the result may seem contrary to our intuitions about the criminal law.” But, she said, it reflected her “committed effort to faithfully apply the dictates of the Supreme Court to the charges in this case. The law must be the Court’s only concern.”
Mangione, 27, appeared relaxed as he sat with his lawyers during the scheduled hearing, which took place about an hour after Garnett issued her written ruling. Prosecutors retained their right to appeal but said they were ready to proceed to trial.
Outside court afterward, Mangione attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo said her client and his defense team were relieved by the “incredible decision.”
Jury selection in the federal case is set for Sept. 8, followed by opening statements and testimony on Oct. 13. The state trial’s date hasn’t been set. On Wednesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office urged the judge in that case to schedule a July 1 trial date.
“That case is none of my concern,” Garnett said, adding that she would proceed as if the federal case is the only case unless she hears formally from parties involved in the state case. She also said the federal case will be paused if the government appeals her death penalty ruling.
Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used by critics to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.
Following through on Trump’s campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors last April to seek the death penalty against Mangione.
It was the first time the Justice Department sought the death penalty in President Donald Trump’s second term. He returned to office a year ago with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Garnett, a Biden appointee and former Manhattan federal prosecutor, ruled after hearing oral arguments earlier this month.
Besides seeking to have the death penalty rejected on the grounds Garnett cited, Mangione’s lawyers argued that Bondi’s announcement flouted long-established Justice Department protocols and was “based on politics, not merit.”
They said her remarks, followed by posts to her Instagram account and a TV appearance, “indelibly prejudiced” the grand jury process resulting in his indictment weeks later.
Prosecutors urged Garnett to keep the death penalty on the table, arguing that the charges were legally sound and Bondi’s remarks weren’t prejudicial, as “pretrial publicity, even when intense, is not itself a constitutional defect.”
Prosecutors argued that careful questioning of prospective jurors would alleviate the defense’s concerns about their knowledge of the case and ensure Mangione’s rights are respected at trial.
“What the defendant recasts as a constitutional crisis is merely a repackaging of arguments” rejected in previous cases, prosecutors said. “None warrants dismissal of the indictment or categorical preclusion of a congressionally authorized punishment.”
