Philippine VP: Bullets can't stop illegal drug use

Leni Robredo urges Filipinos to 'defy incursions on their
 rights' as she denounces president's bloody anti-drug war.

The Philippine vice president has raised an alarm about the
country's bloody crackdown on illegal drug use, saying it can't
be solved "with bullets alone", adding Filipinos should "defy

brazen incursions on their rights".


Vice President Leni Robredo's comments, some of her
sharpest critiques so far of Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug
campaign, are likely to antagonise the brash-talking president.

In her speech, which will be shown at a UN-linked forum on
extrajudicial killings on Thursday, she raised concerns about
 a lack of transparency and accountability in Duterte's crackdown, and the mounting number of killings, which she described as "summary executions".

Since July last year, more than 7,000 people have been
 killed, Robredo said in the video.


"We are now looking at some very grim statistics," she 
added.

Robredo, who belongs to the opposition Liberal
Party, said she had received several complaints from
residents who had been rounded up by police, and told
 they had no rights to demand search warrants as they were living illegally on land they didn't own.

She said Filipinos should demand greater transparency 
in the publicly funded campaign and ask "why no one is 
being held accountable", citing what she said were hundreds of complaints filed with the Commission on Human Rights,
which recommended the Department of Justice file criminal
complaints.

National police spokesman Senior Superintendent Dionardo
Carlos said the allegations, if true, violated police policy and
should have been reported to authorities so they could
investigate.

"If these are happening, or have happened, our request 
is for specifics because these are not sanctioned," Carlos
 said.

Robredo said she publicly asked Duterte "to direct the nation
toward respect for rule of law, instead of blatant disregard
 for it".

"We ask him to uphold basic human rights enshrined in
 our constitution, instead of encouraging its abuse. We also ask the Filipino people to defy brazen incursions on their rights," she added.

Duterte and his national police chief have said they do not
condone extrajudicial killings, but have repeatedly threatened
drug suspects with death in public speeches.

Last month, rights group Amnesty International accused
police of behaving like the criminal underworld they are
supposed to be suppressing, systematically targeting the
poor and defenceless, recruiting paid killers, stealing from
 the people they kill, and fabricating official incident reports.