Philippines: Britain sold spy gear as President Rodrigo Duterte waged deadly drug war

The British government sold nearly US$200,000 of hi-tech spying equipment to the Philippines, giving President Rodrigo Duterte the tools to hunt down and kill dealers and addicts as part of his brutal war on drugs.

The equipment purchased by Duterte’s government included IMSI-Catchers, which are used to eavesdrop on telephone conversations, and surveillance tools to monitor internet activity.

Duterte has admitted authorising the wiretapping of at least two mayors whom he accused of being “narcopoliticians”, including the Ozamiz city mayor, Reynaldo Parojinog.

The British Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a member of the committees on arms export controls, accused the UK government of enabling Duterte’s violent hunt, “which makes us complicit in the deaths of thousands of Filipinos”.

He added: “This sad case shows that our arms export control regime is broken. The government is failing in its basic legal duty.”