Prominent Filipino Winnipegger says he 'loves' Philippine president's war on drugs
Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte has drawn condemnation from human rights groups and experts with the United Nations for a bloody war on drugs. But one prominent Filipino Winnipegger says he supports the way the president is dealing with crime and drugs.
"I love it," Rod Cantiveros said in an interview with CBC Radio's Weekend Morning Show.
Duterte won the Philippines' presidency promising to wipe out drugs and warning traffickers they risked death for their crimes.
"There are three million drug addicts [in the Philippines]. I'd be happy to slaughter them," Duterte told reporters in a September speech.
Since the controversial leader took office in June, more than 5,000 people have died in his anti-drug campaign, according to Human Rights Watch's Asia Division deputy director.
But Cantiveros, who came to Winnipeg in 1974 and started Winnipeg's Filipino Journal newspaper, said international media are exaggerating Duterte's actions.
"The media, especially international media members, are not friends of Duterte because Duterte would like to remove the status quo," Cantiveros said.
"He became the president because [of] the 16 million [voters] who believe in him."
While Cantiveros recognized the deaths — without charges or a trial — would not be acceptable in Canada, he said "in the Philippines, it is a different story."
"We are tired of corruption and we are tired of poverty," he said.
'A very, very scary situation'
But not all Manitoban Filipinos agree that Duterte's tactics are the right direction. Restaurateur Roddy Seradilla, who owns Pimp My Rice, said he is terrified watching reports from the Philippines.
"It's a very, very scary situation over there," he said.
As second-generation Filipino-Canadian, Seradilla said it's easy for him to condemn Duterte's brutal tactics. But he understands why some people support them, and acknowledges drug abuse and crime are serious issues.
"Being a Filipino-Canadian, I am truly just an outsider looking in, and I'm used to the Canadian or the North American way of doing things with the judicial system," he said.
"Most people that I speak with, being friends of the family, will say right off the top that, yes, they are full supporters of him and what he's doing, but at the same time these are human lives. These people have families."
'Utter human rights catastophe'
Rights groups have accused Duterte — who has been nicknamed "the Punisher" and "Duterte Harry," after the Clint Eastwood film character — of involvement in death squads, a claim which the president has denied.
Many of the deaths have allegedly resulted from drug arrests gone wrong, but other killings are reportedly the work of masked people who haven't been caught.
However, during a September senate hearing in the Philippines to explain the increase in deaths and reports of vigilante killings, a former Filipino militiaman testified that Duterte, while he was still a city mayor, ordered him and other members to kill opponents and criminals.
Edgar Matobato, 57, testified that he carried out about 50 deadly assaults, even feeding a suspected kidnapper to a crocodile in 2007.
Such reports have drawn strong reactions around the world.
In a November interview with CBC Radio's The Current, Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phelim Kine called Duterte's war on drugs "ill-conceived" and said it is "nothing less than an utter human rights catastrophe."
Even with the condemnation of Duterte's approach, Cantiveros said the crime rate is too high and something needs to be done.
"Duterte said, 'I am the terror for the few who are the evils, because I represent the many who are good,'" Cantiveros said.
Listen to Rod Cantiveros' full interview below.
