Several Facebook fan pages dedicated to President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed the “good news that the Malaysian prime minister “begs Duterte to fight drugs in Malaysia.” They shared articles picked up by websites du30news.com and du30newsinfo.com.
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When we clicked on du30news.com, though, we could not find the specific article because we were directed to the site’s homepage. On the other hand, the article from du30newsinfo.com could no longer be found, which meant they have taken the article down.
But as what you might have seen on the Facebook pages above, the said articles have gained thousands of shares and reactions.
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Since we could not locate the article through the links shared by the Duterte fan pages, we tried to Google “malaysia’s prime minister begs Duterte to fight drugs” and this is what we found.
According to the article on the first result, smithrise,com, of our Google search, Malaysian PM Najib Razak asked for Duterte’s help because “the rate keeps on increasing daily” in his country despite the death penalty for drug-related offenses. The article also noted that “most countries would engage the president (Duterte) in its fight against drug related offenses.”
However, smithrise.com is a fake news site, as what can be seen from its posting of fake news sites, a few of which involved Duterte.
It’s not true that the Malaysian PM Razak asked Duterte for help in fighting drugs.
When Duterte visited Malaysia for two days on November 9 and 10, where he had a bilateral meeting with Razak.
Inquirer reported that during his pre-departure speech on Monday, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Charles Jose said that the topics to be tackled during the Malaysian visit would be Malaysia’s proposed inclusion in the Philippine government’s peace talks with the MILF, security issues in the Sulu-Sulawesi Sea, the Philippines’ ASEAN chairmanship in 2017, and counter terrorism. The Sabah issue was not included in the topics.
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Earlier, Duterte said that he would discuss the rampant kidnapping, piracy, and criminality in the Malacca Strait with Malaysia.
Where illegal drug trade is concerned, Duterte was even the one who said that he would ask the Malaysian government’s cooperation in the drug war.
“The [drug] menace knows no boundaries and cooperation between our nations [is] vital in order to address this problem,” he said.
The Malay Mail Online also reported how Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahamad Zahid Hamidi said that Malaysia is not going to adopt the strategy used in the Philippines.
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“We respect the method undertaken by them but it is only suitable for their country. Malaysia will be using our own method, especially in enforcing laws we currently have,” Ahmad Zahir told the media after his meeting with the Cabinet Committee on Eradication of Drugs.
The article further added that the Malaysian government is considering seizing assets used in drug trafficking and the funds to be used towards rehabilitation, prevention and enforcement of laws against drugs.
Sources: (globalnation.inquirer.net, rappler.com, sunstar.com, themalaymailonline.com)
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