Albayalde: ‘We take alleged CIA threat vs Duterte seriously’

Police Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said that the Philippine National Police (PNP) takes the alleged assassination plot of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against President Rodrigo Duterte “very seriously.”

Duterte earlier claimed that the US-based CIA wants him dead, as he also alleged that other countries like Russia and China are watching him.

READ: Duterte reiterates: The CIA wanted me dead

“We take the security concerns of the President very seriously,” Albayalde told reporters in a press briefing on Wednesday.

The PNP chief said that the police always assume a threat against the life of the President as serious as various groups including communists and local terrorists “may want him out of their way.”

He said the security force should take the threat even more seriously as the information came from the President himself, but he emphasized that the PNP can “adequately” protect him.

But despite giving this assurance, Albayalde earlier said there is no information within the PNP over any alleged CIA threat against the President. /ee

READ: No info within PNP on CIA assassination plot vs Duterte, says Albayalde