Rodrigo Duterte: Human rights concerns in the Philippines will not stop deadly war on drugs

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Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to continue his deadly crackdown on drugs, telling users they face either “jail or hell”.

Responding to growing international criticism of his violent war on illicit drugs, which is understood to have claimed the lives of more than 7,000 people, the Philippine President said he would not be scared by threats of prosecution.

He urged his critics not to trivialise government efforts by demanding human rights be upheld, telling an audience at his annual state of the nation address on Monday: “Do not try to scare me with prison or the International Court of Justice.

"I'm willing to go to prison for the rest of my life.

"The fight will be unremitting as it will be unrelenting.

"There is a jungle out there, there are beasts out there preying on the innocent, the helpless."

To applause from his national police chief, Ronald del Rosa, Mr Duterte added: “The fight will not stop until those who deal in (drugs) understand that they have to stop because the alternatives are either jail or hell.”

Mr Duterte’s fierce defence of his drugs policy came as thousands of protesters marched to the House of Representatives to demand he deliver on promises made in his first state of the nation speech last year, from holding peace talks with communist insurgents to improving internet speed.

Human Rights Watch has accused Mr Duterte of “unleashing a human rights calamity” in the Philippines.

“The extraordinary brutality of the Duterte drug war is undeniable,” it said in a statement released last week.

“Many of the victims are found in back alleys or street corners wrapped in packing tape, their bodies bullet-ridden or bearing stab wounds and other signs of torture.”

The 71-year-old President won approval in Congress at the weekend for an extension of martial law in the south to deal with the siege of Marawi by pro-Isis fighters.

The fight against Islamist militants in one of the country’s biggest southern cities continues two months on, with more than 500 dead.

Separately, Mr Duterte’s top ally in Congress has proposed new bills to legalise same-sex marriage and divorce.

“Our citizens should not be excluded from society just because of the person they love. They must also be treated with equality before the law," Pantaleon Alvarez said.

The Vatican and the Philippines are the only states in which divorce is outlawed.

In the most recent opinion polls, Filipinos have overwhelmingly rejected same-sex marriages, with the latest survey in 2015 showing nearly 70 per cent of 1,200 respondents strongly disagreed.

Laws on same-sex marriages have been proposed as far back 2006, but none has gained traction.

However, the latest attempt could gain momentum because it has the endorsement of Mr Alvarez, a close ally of Mr Duterte.

Additional reporting by agencies