FORMER Bayan Muna party-list Representative Neri Colmenares said on Tuesday they support President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs, but the extra-judicial killings that resulted from it are unacceptable.
Colmenares visited the Bacolod Government Center yesterday to thank government employees who supported his senatorial bid during the May 9 elections.
He said that extra-judicial killings also happened in Thailand during the time of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, where almost 4, 000 were killed in three months.
Four years later, the Thailand government found out that most of the victims were not involved in illegal drugs, Colmenares added.
“We are part of President Duterte’s alliance and we support his pro-people policies, but we also give our opinion if we think that something is not right," Colmenares said.
“Tolerating the extra-judicial killings is not right,” he said.
Meanwhile, Colmenares said he supports Duterte’s declaration of state of lawlessness after the Friday evening blast that killed 14 people and injured 70 others in Davao City.
He said the President has a basis to pull out forces from the barracks to fulfill certain civilian functions like serving of arrest warrants and to conduct checkpoints.
“(But) it should not be a never ending state of lawlessness," Colmenares said, adding that they will raise this issue to Duterte when he returns from his trip to Laos.