Police in the Philippines have killed 32 people in a series of raids near Manila, in the bloodiest night yet of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
Supt Romeo Caramat said 67 police operations in various parts of Bulacan, a province north of the capital, had left 32 “drug personalities” dead and more than 100 others in custody.
“We have conducted ‘one-time, big-time’ operations in the past. So far, the number of casualties and deaths, this is the highest,” Caramat said at a news conference to publicise the raids.
“We wanted to shock and awe these drug personalities,” he said. “Other drug personalities will think twice before continuing with their drug trade.”
Human rights groups have repeatedly warned that Duterte, nicknamed “the Punisher” by his supporters for his approach to policing, may be overseeing crimes against humanity in his brutal anti-drugs campaign, which has left thousands dead.
Duterte praised the operation in Bulacan, which took place from Monday night until Tuesday afternoon, and urged police to kill dozens of drug suspects every day.
“The ones who died recently in Bulacan, 32, in a massive raid, that was good,” Duterte said in a speech to an anti-crime organisation that has backed the drugs war. “If we could kill another 32 every day, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country.”
Bulacan has been a major target in the drugs war, with 425 people killed and 4,000 offenders arrested, according to Caramat, making it the second-biggest hotspot in the crackdown outside the Manila area.
Duterte was elected president last year on a quick-fix, populist platform of wiping out crime and pledging to put drug pushers in funeral parlours, not prisons.
He has said he is “happy to slaughter” millions of of drug users and dismissed the deaths of children as “collateral damage”.
The former prosecutor said he used to personally kill criminals when he was mayor of the southern city Davao and once threw a suspect out of a helicopter.
Since Duterte became president last July, government figures show police have killed 3,451 “drug personalities”. More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to police data.
Duterte has admitted the police force was “corrupt to the core”, but has vowed to protect officers who kill drug suspects under suspicious circumstances.
At the press conference, Caramat defended the police action, saying the deaths occurred during shootouts, and were not executions as activists have often alleged.
“There are some sectors that will not believe us,” he said, “but we are open for any investigation. All we can say is that we don’t have any control of the situation. As much as possible, we don’t want this bloody encounter.”
Political opponents of Duterte have filed a complaint with the international criminal court (ICC), accusing the president and top aides of crimes against humanity, arguing they failed to address allegations of widespread police abuses that have been brought to their attention.
Duterte has welcomed the ICC complaint and said he is willing to rot in jail to protect Filipinos.
In February, after thousands of alleged drug users and suspected dealers had been killed, the president ordered a temporary halt in all operations, raising hopes that the bloodshed would end.
However, this week’s raids follow an attack in a southern city on 30 July in which officers killed 16 people, including a city mayor.
Police records said officers seized 21 firearms and about 100g (3.5 ounces) of shabu, a form of methamphetamine.
Duterte, 72, who remains popular domestically, has previously lashed out at any international criticism of the killings.
He has warned the EU not to “fuck with us” after the European parliament passed a resolution expressing “grave concern over credible reports” that Philippine police were engaged in extrajudicial killings, a claim officers vehemently deny. Duterte also called the former US president Barack Obama a “son of a whore”.
Britain has been less vocal over the killings, and sent the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, to meet Duterte in April, part of a global tour to seek post-Brexit deals with countries outside the European Union.
The US president, Donald Trump, has also sought to boost ties with Duterte, praising him for an “unbelievable job” in his anti-narcotics campaign.
After the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, met Duterte last week, the Philippine president said Washington had “considerably toned down” criticism of human rights abuses.
Duterte has often complained about human rights groups criticising and undermining his campaign. On Wednesday he called for them to be investigated, or worse.
“If they are obstructing justice, shoot them,” he said.