TAGUM CITY - Thousands of self-confessed drug pushers and users turned themselves in to authorities on Saturday in the single biggest surrender so far under President Rodrigo Duterte, police said.
Duterte has vowed to wage a "bloody war" against illegal drugs and since his election win in May, over a hundred suspects have been killed, purportedly for attacking arresting officers. He stepped up his unprecedented campaign this week by naming five police generals as protectors of drug syndicates. He also went on national television to detail an elaborate matrix of drug operations in the country. Close to 4,000 suspects packed an auditorium in this city on Saturday, around 80 kilometers from Davao, where Duterte served as mayor for two decades, police said.
The suspects, mostly men with baseball caps and dark shades worn on their heads, signed their names on a giant "commitment wall," and pledged to abandon drugs.
The suspects were not detained, but they will be "monitored" according to police.
Many other drug suspects have turned themselves in large numbers since Duterte assumed office on June 30 but Saturday's surrender was the biggest so far.
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