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700,000 drug pushers, addicts surrender in PH

MANILA: No less than 700,000 drug pushers and addicts have surrendered to the police and military since Rodrigo Duterte took over as the president of the Philippines.

Duterte has sought an extension to the bloody “drug war” for six more months in a bid to clean up the country, reported IB Times.

Duterte reportedly said he under-estimated the situation in the Philippines before he became the president.

“So when I started to press everybody, it was like a worm out of a can and no one could have believed that there would be about 700,000 new guys, maybe in the drug business that have surrendered to the police and the military,” Duterte was quoted as saying.

“But the problem is, it was a headline, ‘I can’t kill them all.’ Because even if I want it to, I cannot kill them all because the last report would be this thick ..,” added Duterte, who has been facing global criticism over human rights violation and extrajudicial killings.

The Philippine president insisted: “Just give me a little extension of maybe another six months. I did not have any idea that there were hundreds of thousands already in the drug business. That self-imposed time of three to six months, I did not realize how severe the problem of the drug menace is in this republic until I became president.”

Duterte has been waging a blood-smeared battle against drug-traffickers and illegal trade for the past few months. It has claimed the lives of up to 3,500 people connected to the narcotics trade. While nearly 1,000 of them were targeted by police and other security forces, a majority of them were dealt by vigilantes and hit squads, the report said.

Duterte came to power in May 2016, riding on the wave of a harsh anti-drug rhetoric wave promising to cleanse the streets of drugs. He sought three to six months to wipe out the illicit drug trade, which has been crippling the Philippines, reported IB Times.

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