Duterte offers P5.5M reward for every slain drug lord in Cebu

Philippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte  AFP FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY — President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is offering a P5.5 million reward for every slain drug lord here in Cebu.

The offer was at least 100 times bigger than the P50,000 being dangled by Cebu City Mayor-elect Tomas Osmeña for every dead suspected criminal.

“Ang sa Cebu kay buotan man ang mga tao diri. May premium P5,500,000 (Those who live in Cebu are good people. There is a premium, P5,500,000),” Duterte told the close to 300 people who attended the thanksgiving party for him organized by a private group at the Cebu Country Club.

The tough-talking Duterte, who won on the platform against criminality, said the reward had actually been a plea for drug lords to stop what they had been doing.

“It’s really the plea. Akong hangyo (My request). Stop it. Stop it. Para walay samok (so there would be no trouble). I plead for you to stop fucking this country and we will be alright. Wala tayong problema (We would not have a problem),” he said as he closed his 40-minute speech on Wednesday evening.

Duterte said that he knew of cases in which some policemen involved in anti-drug operations did not declare the actual volume of the seized drugs.

He warned them to stop this.

“I do not want to go to the extreme but I am asking for the reversal of these things. If I cannot get it the right way, then, I will do it the wrong way because I have a sworn duty to protect the Republic,” he added.

He also warned the New Bilibid Prison and all the jails in the country to stop drug smuggling into their prisons and not wait for him to act on the problem.  SFM/rga