Rodrigo Duterte on drugs, death and diplomacy | Talk to Al Jazeera

We are at the presidential palace in Manila, which marks just over 100 days of Rodrigo Duterte's presidency, in a first exclusive interview since he was sworn in. We spoke with him about his controversial war on

drugs

and his foreign policy, including his deteriorating relations with the United States. States and potentially warm relations with China, the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Rodrigo Rojo, detected conversations with al-

jazeera

mr. president, thank you for speaking to Al Jazeera, it has been a tumultuous start to the presidency for you, full of controversy, especially over the war on

drugs

, but first let's start with your background, you grew up in a politically inclined family, your father you were a governor, your mother was a freedom fighter during the reign of former president Ferdinand Marcos, how did that profoundly affect your outlook?

I would say I grew up in a political environment and as politicians we tend to follow the issues of the day when big was the way. In fact, the economic conditions and everything, especially the political issues and the fact that my father was governor for 10 years or more but when he died I was then a prosecutor and when the revolution came my mother was one of the staunchest of the opposition against Marco. You also had some tough times when you were younger as a kid. You have revealed that you were sexually abused by a priest. That shaped your beliefs and that helped shape who you are now.

Yes, to a large extent, that's actually what you get. Along the way, that especially shapes your character and even you are in that moment, even your politics and, uh, how you look at the world and how you should evaluate them by the standards of use in school and in the growth of things that you learn. along the way he said that it is a kind of mixture in a coalition, he combines it with something that is big, you can say that he forms his own values ​​in life, let's

talk

about the war on drugs, now it seems that three and a half thousand people have been killed so far.

Like everyone is

talk

ing about it right now, the Philippines seems to have so many problems so why launch what is a brutal war on drugs because the large number of contaminated people will force them to play the field and now destroy to the next generation of Latinos? You know that these lives were lost, some of them were lost during legitimate encounters with the police, but the fact is that right now we have three thousand five hundred people murdered and you yourself alluded at the time that perhaps some of them were not legitimate objectives. I know that there is no crime when you threaten to kill criminals in my country at least there is no law that says that I may have threatened criminals and that was the favorite, but of course the cliché that they used it became a cliché with time and when I was president I said that we have three million according to Padilla three million drug addicts without counting mine because it still continues so I said if we don't end this problem the next generation will have a serious problem and I discovered that again the same thing destroys my country I will kill you and it is a legitimate thing if you destroy our little children I will kill you that is a very correct statement there is nothing wrong with trying to preserve the interest of the next generation that three million addicts is not that they are not a residence of a compact area or adjacent place, they are spread throughout the country and in large numbers because if you are a user you must press unless you are the son of a millionaire or because you have to support yourself. your addiction by getting another financier for you and then the next financier will have to get a new victim to finance, that's what it became, that's how drugs spread, but it wasn't until I became president that the extent and magnitude of the problem became a really serious problem.

So what happens to the children and innocent people who have been murdered? This is bad. Then, those cases will be investigated. You give up. Do you promise that all that? But let me tell you, this is the law of my London. he is a policeman here he is a gangster his arm between m16 because they are only a pistol but when they encounter the exchange of fire with the police with an m16 it is a bus preparation and it hits 1000 people under there they die this is criminal responsibility, no It could be negligence because you have to save your life, it cannot be recklessness because you have to defend yourself like when the United States and the rest of the country when they bomb the building they intend to kill the militants but they kill the children in the process, that's just how it is explained and We know that people judge better when they condemn, so they would always put you in a bad position, but the situation does not comfort you and explains the reason why until now I have not yet heard an Apology for those who are in Vietnam in Afghanistan, No matter the militants, we will kill them, but then in depressive cases for the families in the hospital or as collateral damage, then why is it an equilateral damage for the West and for us it is a murder?

You went to law school. Yes, you worked hard to be part of the legal system. You are a good lawyer by profession and were a prosecutor for many years. Yes, do you still believe in the country's judicial system right now? I must believe in the system because I will guarantee it to you this time. what laws this way there are judges here in Manila more than 1000 cases no conviction at all for a drug case that's where the punishment hits the well maybe savagery threatening people on both sides that's how it's played here that's why we are so miserable Not what happens with the drug problem, but do you agree?

Do you acknowledge that you have encouraged vigilante killings? No, I said: I will kill you if I breathe it. Well, yes, but the point is that people can get away with this right now and you know some of them. The murders are not legitimate, so do you think there could be cases of people settling old scores and dressing it up as the war on drugs? I don't play with guesses. I don't make assumptions. I'm just saying what it should be. saying as a precedent under Samiha now if criminals are killed by thousands that is not my problem my problem is how to take care of the law abiding and God fearing youth of this Republic because they are resources strictly speaking that no redeeming factor can be found in being you know that the criminals are there for what the other for the same as the poster in maximum if you have read young man this is exactly how the cookie crumbles so when I make a purchase I will kill you because MDMA or Now I am the president, yes the Watchers will take control, but you know I can't control it, I can't be God and control everything, okay you just kill these guys or wait for the courts to do it.

You can encourage good policing and you can encourage. justice and confidence in the judicial system, but when I was campaigning as president, the drug problem was already reaching millions, well, 3 million is 3 million, now during my time we have started counting, now we are approaching the mark of 800, 800,000 for the year. In the end, I would also have about a million, so I have 4 million drug addicts. Do you think it's an easy number? No, so why not put all the energy into rehabilitation? What do you think about reforming health care? Ok, oh, uh, weapons company, let's cut this out. for a while I just heard a soldier, ok, ok, I pressed the Capone appeal newspaper again, he wants to show you the news, oh right, okay, so you were saying about this facility, sir, what is this ?

This is a rehabilitation center built by someone. what they clicked was set up, you know, on the third day I should have built harihar houses instead of killing the criminals, the drug lords, you know, this would cost millions. I entered the presidency of the Republic of the Philippines in the middle of the theorem, there is nothing left in the budget. for this year, which was prepared by my predecessor, which was also prepared the other year to be implemented this year, the implementation does not contain money because no one, until I became president of this country, no one realized how widespread and how dimensional It was, sir, in the past during the campaign and during the weeks of your presidency, you have repeatedly said that you have no respect for human rights, but human rights are actually part of the Constitution and, as head of state, also It is part of your duty to defend the Constitution, how is that related? rather intimidate and strike fear into the hearts of criminals, like what happened in Davao, when you can finally walk the streets, walk the streets at night and you can eat anywhere and anytime and no one, but no one will bother you.

Davao Davao is happening. The city is in the middle of Mindanao, it's Robert Lon, but I can assure you that many people have been there. It is a destination for international conventions and conferences. It is always chosen, so it is booming. It's a little richer than the others. Because? Because we can live. or knives or live normally and of course business contract so when I said I don't care what the human rights people say I have a duty to preserve the generation if it is about human rights I don't care I have to instill fear because I said that The privacy of states is there to destroy children, aren't you worried about the possible ramifications in the future for you, a possible impeachment or being tried in the international court?

Good question, before I can begin you must determine that I have committed the crime in my country I have committed mass murders in my country and then I have been accused of them there can be no ratification when I say I will kill you if you destroy my London it is illegitimate He says it's a legitimate statement from any general from any job I'm the president of a tribal leader to say such things, of course you said there could be consequences but I'm not worried about this. I don't make any projections about how many vigilante murders, well, if you compare the four million to the three thousand - legitimate encounters between law enforcement officers and criminals are roughly even half that, so what is it?

The lives already lost. I have four million addicts to take care of and I have been criticized, I would say. well why don't you know the filth they build rehab centers in and put you there when they are ready to kill you? Look, I am an incorporated president in the sense that I entered the presidency this year, the only one this year in which the budget for this year was prepared by my predecessor, Aquino, and it binds me because it would last until December. Nowhere in this budget is enough money provided to construct even two buildings.

Structures of the center of Aubry. It's all that's left of my government now, after the elections, it's enough for the M o. e o e maintenance and all that sings you don't know capital outlays President Aquino's budget for this year the last six months does not include any rehabilitation because the problem was there but there was no one taking care of the store I was the only mayor brave enough to say those things so that my headquarters city would get the benefits of a peaceful place where you can eat, work safely, but the rest of us did not know them, but they allowed many administrations to flourish and this was done until I became president among you.

I realized that there were already, according to at that time the general generals and cello of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Padilla, there are already three million addicts, so it doesn't matter what counts because I'm still counting until the end of the year . in favor of medical marijuana, yes, but that is a very long process, it has to be something like being officially certified by the Philippine Food and Drug Agency and it has to have this qualification, you know, an activity in which use to find out if it is really medicinal. or if it can do something good for the body but you should consider it, I would consider legalizing it, for example.

III I'm not the authority for that, it's the Food and Drug Administration, which I said it's okay, it's okay if it's certified by the government that it's okay, no problem, I don't think anyone can deny it, no matter how controversial it is , that you kept your election campaign promise to crack down on drugs, one thing you still haven't kept is your promise. ride a jet ski to the disputed territory in the South China Sea and plant the Philippine flag there now, a lot of people, a lot of voters, I guess took that as a sign that you were going to be tough on China in that disputed territory in the South.

China Sea or the West Philippine Sea, but you haven't been, why do you really think I would ride there? I don't even have a jet, no I don't, but if people perceived that as a sign that you were going to get Hard with it, that was hyperbola, literally a table you can't wait for, oh right, I don't even know how to swim and if it tips over and you lose a president along the way, then why did you say that? So what did you mean by a hyperbola here? Underline a point that we are not going to give up anything there, but your recent statements tend to indicate that you are willing to give up some territory there, no, that's it, no one is going to give up my Madrid, the readjustment I thought is enough. you can't noI can give it up no one can give it up no one in the Constitution allows anyone to give it up even the president can't give it up those are our rights this is an island everyone every country in this world has its own fish pond that's your Fishman where you can fish the stocks and everything you can't give up you can only negotiate to avoid war remember we are fine I will take your logic to the logical conclusion we have this right judgment two things I can do I You can get angry because you are being occupied, but remember you are not a sovereign and you have the right attached if the sovereignty is okay the order is to rage and fight and the other is the superior what do you think?

What will happen to my country if I choose to go to work and fight alone? Oh, I would call the other countries to help me, who died for my country, except for us, so we can only talk and that's why I was invited to talks. I will go, but I will go with this blank document, she is president, yes, I said this is the prize. I cannot go beyond the limits of this document. Come on, let's talk, let's start here The Philippines wants a landmark case against China unprecedented in recent history a smaller country facing a superpower declared the China nine claim invalid now you're going to China and you mentioned earlier said it won't insist on the Philippines' position at Scarborough Shoal, now that its critics are wondering why it appears that it is going to China and is negotiating from a position of weakness rather than abstract, it would be arrogant for me to go there and say that I am going there to fight Because of this and you know that there is a lot to learn in history and even in books and in the way that Eastern people put words in small, especially the Chinese, you have to go there with a little courtesy. but when you are already in front, which is Ghana, then I said, this is, we do not do what it would be, I will go, what would be the purpose of going there for no reason, but you can guarantee the Filipino people that you are not going to do it. sign or lose hope of stopping fighting for Spratlys Scarborough Shoal if they are Philippine territory, no one but no one, not even the president of this country, can give up the claim that he is not allowed to do that, that he is sure that come on. to impeachment but can you guarantee that you will fight? - yes - no one is going to renounce anything I said if the Constitution doesn't allow you to, so who can?

They are not even your mouth, since that is what you see waiting. What to do when you go to China, well, maybe we'll talk about that, no, no, I would provide the means for us to get started and then the question of the trial would come in, and then some other matters of both trade and commerce and if there is any agreement. is coming or a happy compromise 10 a week we can talk about China Sea rights but I can't really predict anything solid to talk about until they get there so I won't be there until I'm there will you discuss the war against drugs because records show that many of the drugs coming to the Philippines come from China.

Understand, that's why I'd like to help, but you're not China. Know your democracy. I mean, the communist is just something that is just you. think about going shopping keep control but all there is is free enterprise having said that mr. President, he has clearly distanced himself from the United States, why does he believe it is necessary for the country to distance itself from its former ally in Asia? Our exclusive interview with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will continue in the next episode of Chat with Al. Jazeera