The bloody war on illegal drugs of ex- President Rodrigo Duterte that killed more than 6,000 mostly poor drug suspects is not a legitimate law enforcement policy, according to Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile.
Enrile made the remarks more than a week after he asked if Duterte was serious or joking about killing 5,000 people in the first few months of his term in 2016.
In a post on Facebook on Saturday, the chief lawyer of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. remarked that many of the former President’s followers are “advocates and supporters of strong-arm style of government.”
“They think that the PRRD drug war was a legitimate law enforcement policy. It was not. The anti-drug law did not, to my recollection, authorize killing suspected people with impunity,” Enrile stressed,
He added that “no Congress, under our constitutional law, ever authorized summary killings of suspected people.
Enrile added that even the 1987 Constitution “abhors the death penalty.”
“Even criminals caught red-handed are not authorized by law to be killed summarily, unless they resisted with violence. Police power in this country is not licensed to kill suspected people with impunity. Police power is generally controlled by LAW and DUE PROCESS,” he said.
Last week, Enrile also took to Facebook to ask if Duterte was serious or joking when he talked about killing 5,000 drug suspects in the first months of his anti-narcotics drive in 2016.
The former President is being investigated by the International Criminal Court on his alleged crimes against humanity in his war on illegal drugs.
In 2024, the former President faced congressional hearings and refused to apologize for his actions. He said he ordered policemen to coax drug suspects to fight back so that they can be killed off.
Enrile: Duterte’s drug war not legitimate law enforcement policy
