Philippines’ Duterte orders police ‘not to cooperate’ in drug war probe

Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the police and soldiers not to cooperate in any investigation into the war on drugs, amid international calls for an external probe. Western countries and rights groups cite the killing by police of more than 4,000 Filipinos since Duterte took office in June 2016, as well as hundreds more killings of drug users by unknown gunmen, the Guardian said. “When it comes to human rights, or whoever rapporteur it is, my order to you: do not answer. Do not bother,” Duterte said. The president was speaking before elite armed police units in his home city of Davao on Thursday. “And who are you to interfere in the way I would run my country? You know very well that we are being swallowed by drugs,” Duterte added. Manila on Tuesday had welcomed a UN investigation into Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign, but not if it is conducted by the current UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, because of “bias and of not being qualified.”