“The White Storm 2: Drug Lords” Inspired by the President of Philippines

In the film The White Storm 2: Drug Lords , Andy Lau (劉德華) plays a philanthropist who developed a hatred towards drugs after seeing his father succumbing to drug abuse. Andy’s character vowed to eradicate drugs and offer a million dollars to anyone who can take down Hong Kong’s largest drug lord, played by Louis Koo (古天樂). While Andy’s character may sound dramatic, the character has similarities to Rodrigo Duterte, the current President of the Philippines.

Duterte’s War on Drugs

Similar to Andy’s character, Duterte harbors hatred towards drugs and created concerning policies to eliminate drugs in the Philippines. Duterte admitted that he not only wanted to catch drug producers and traffickers, he wanted to chase and kill offenders.

To this end, Duterte enabled police forces to prosecute or kill drug dealers without a trial, and thus images of dead bodies lying on the street are a common sight in Philippines. It has been reported that 1,700 people were killed by police and hit men for drug-related crimes within half a month of Duterte’s presidency. Some sources even reported Duterte’s war on drugs resulted in the death 20,000 people.

Duterte’s calls for death penalty for drug traffickers have been condemned by many nations, and he was investigated twice by the International Criminal Court. However, Duterte remained unfazed and unapologetically stated that he was being convicted without a trial.

Threatening Drug Dealers

Emphasizing his stance on drugs, Duterte directed his threats to drug dealers, “I don’t want my children to take drugs. You are raised by dog . I will kill you in front of you. I will do as I say. I have three years left in the office, and these three years will be hell for drug dealers. I will really kill you. Don’t touch drugs. If you do, I will only have regrets for your death.”

Read the full article