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Death of a businessman: How the Philippine drugs war was slowed

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Karen Lema and Martin Petty, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/02/13/duterte-bato-rtr-021317.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">Philippine National Police chief General Ronald Dela Rosa whispers to President Duterte during the announcement of the disbandment of police operations against illegal drugs at the Malacañang, January 29, 2017.<em> Ezra Acayan, Reuters</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA - When Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte summoned his security chiefs to an urgent meeting one Sunday night last month, his mind was already made up.</p><p>His military and law enforcement heads had no idea what was coming: a <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/30/17/bato-stops-drug-war-starts-fight-vs-rogue-cops">suspension</a> of the police force&#x27;s leading role in his signature campaign, a merciless war on illegal drugs.</p><p>There was only one reason for the U-turn, three people who attended the Jan. 29 meeting told Reuters. Duterte was furious that drugs-squad cops had not only kidnapped and murdered a South Korean businessman, they had strangled him to death in the headquarters of the Philippines National Police itself.</p><p>&quot;He was straight to the point - &#x27;I am ordering you to disband your anti-drug units, all units&#x27;,&quot; said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who was at the meeting in the presidential palace.</p><p>Duterte decided that the much smaller Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) would take over the drugs crackdown, with support from the military.</p><p>It was a stunning turnaround by Duterte, who had until then stood unswervingly behind his police force through months of allegations that its officers were guilty of extra-judicial killings and colluding with hit men in a campaign that has claimed the lives of more than 7,600 people, mostly drug pushers and users, in seven months.</p><p>The blunt-spoken president had repeatedly defied calls from United Nations, the United States and the European Union to rein in his war on drugs, calling them stupid. Duterte&#x27;s aides were used to his mercurial style, but they were taken aback that the killing of one foreigner would be enough to stop him in his tracks.</p><p>One explanation is that relations with South Korea are of huge importance to the Philippines for development aid, tourism, overseas employment and military hardware.</p><p>But security officials said it was the audacity of the killing of Jee Ick-joo and the attempt to use the war on drugs as a cover for kidnap and ransom that triggered his decision.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s all about the Korean. That it happened at all, it&#x27;s really that (which) pissed him off,&quot; Lorenzana told Reuters.</p><ul class="op-related-articles" title="Read">	<li><strong>READ: </strong> <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/multimedia/infographic/01/28/17/murder-most-foul-timeline-of-tokhang-for-ransom">Murder most foul: Timeline of &#x27;tokhang-for-ransom&#x27;</a></li></ul><p>PDEA Director General Isidro Lapena, who was also at the meeting, hadn&#x27;t seen it coming either. He said in an interview that the president had lambasted the police force and told them that the &quot;deactivation&quot; and purge of its anti-drugs unit was now as important as the drugs war itself.</p><p>Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa told Reuters that Duterte had been &quot;really mad&quot; about the incident and, after the meeting, the president publicly denounced the police force as &quot;corrupt to the core&quot;.</p><p>&quot;SO OBVIOUS&quot;</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/02/13/jee-ick-joo-rtr-021317.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">South Korean nationals pay their respect during a memorial service for their compatriot Jee Ick-joo, who was allegedly killed by policemen inside Camp Crame. Picture taken February 6, 2017.<em> Erik De Castro, Reuters</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>The president&#x27;s legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, said the president, a former prosecutor, makes decisions strictly on the basis of the letter of the law. Activists&#x27; allegations of summary executions had no supporting evidence, he said, yet to Duterte, Jee&#x27;s killing was irrefutable, audacious, and embarrassing.</p><p>&quot;The committing of that crime was so obvious,&quot; he said.</p><p>Worried that the incident would dent the Philippines&#x27; image in South Korea, Duterte sent Panelo to Seoul to apologize to acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn.</p><p>Seoul is Manila&#x27;s biggest supplier of military hardware, donating or selling fighter jets, patrol boats, frigates and trucks.</p><p>About 1.4 million South Koreans visited the Philippines in the first 10 months of 2016 - a quarter of all tourists arrivals - lured by beaches, golf and the sex industry. Korean tourists spend an average $180-$200 daily, and their overall spending is triple that of U.S. visitors.</p><p>South Korea is the Philippines&#x27; fifth-largest source of development aid and in 2015 invested $520 million in areas like power, tourism and electronics manufacturing.</p><p>About 55,000 Filipinos work in South Korea and the Philippines attracts Koreans studying English, over 3,700 of them last year.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/02/13/drugwar-3.jpg"/><figcaption><div class="embed-desc">Filipinos hold balloons at the site where South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo was allegedly killed by policemen inside Camp Crame. Photo taken February 6, 2017.<em> Erik De Castro, Reuters</em></div></figcaption></figure></div><p>A South Korean diplomat in Manila said there were no threats or pressure on the Philippine government over the killing of the businessman, but Seoul wanted a guarantee of safety for its citizens and a secure investment climate.</p><p>Hoik Lee, president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, said South Koreans felt increasingly unsafe in the country.</p><p>The chamber&#x27;s membership has grown from 20 firms in 1995 to 500 companies now, including Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Hanjin and LG, but Lee estimated that the Korean community has shrunk by about a third to 100,000 people since 2013 despite the bright economic outlook in the Philippines.</p><p>&quot;Police should protect us not kill us,&quot; Lee said. &quot;That is why we are very upset and very shocked.&quot;</p><p>The number of Koreans murdered in the Philippines averages about 10 each year, accounting for a third of all Korean nationals killed overseas, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry.</p><p>However, South Koreans are perpetrators of crime as much as they are its victims in the Philippines, says the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, which has a Korean desk handling cases of kidnappings, murder, robbery, theft, extortion and fraud, mostly in Korean communities, where mafias operate.</p><p>For a Graphic on Tourism in the Philippines, click <a href="http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/PHILIPPINES-DRUGS-TOURISM/010031P13VG/PHILIPPINES-DRUGS-TOURISM.jpg">here</a>. </p><p>For a Graphic on South Koreans in the Philippines, click <a href="http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/PHILIPPINES-SOUTHKOREA/010031PQ3X3/PHILIPPINES-SOUTHKOREA.jpg">here</a>. </p><div><strong>(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park in Seoul and Neil Jerome Morales and Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan) </strong></div>

<p>Security officials said it was the audacity of the killing of Jee Ick-joo and the attempt to use the war on drugs as a cover for kidnap and ransom that triggered Duterte's surprising decision.</p>

Security officials said it was the audacity of the killing of Jee Ick-joo and the attempt to use the war on drugs as a cover for kidnap and ransom that triggered Duterte's surprising decision.

Death of a businessman: How the Philippine drugs war was slowed

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Death of a businessman: How the Philippine drugs war was slowed

Karen Lema and Martin Petty,

Reuters

Published Feb 13, 2017 09:16 AM PHT

Read More:

war on drugs

Rodrigo Duterte

PNP

Philippine National Police

Koreans

Tokhang for Ransom

Jee Ick-Joo

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