Those on blacklist given 24 hours to show up at PNP

YIELD within 24 hours or get whacked.

President Duterte on Sunday identified 159 incumbent and former government officials, among them court judges, who were allegedly responsible for making the drug problem a “pandemic” in Philippine society.

As if reading from a “hit list,” Mr. Duterte ticked off the names of the public officials one by one at Camp Panacan in Davao City, where he attended the wake of four soldiers killed by communist guerrillas in Compostela Valley last week.

He gave those on the list 24 hours to submit themselves to Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa or their superiors for investigation “or I will order the military and the police to hunt you down.”

“If you show the slightest violence in the resistance, I will tell the police, ‘Shoot them,’” he told reporters and soldiers.

Mr. Duterte, who has promised to end the drug menace, criminality and corruption in three to six months of his presidency, said the judges should immediately report to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

He said the judges were known to dismiss drug-related criminal cases they were handling in exchange for a fee.

Some of those named have since denied their guilt on radio or television.

‘I’m sorry for my country’

“I am sorry for my country. I grieve for the agony and suffering of the Republic of the Philippines,” the President said in an hourlong speech shown live over state-owned People’s Television 4.

In remarks laced with expletives, Mr. Duterte ordered the automatic relief of all police and military officers he named and directed them to report to their superiors.

He likewise instructed Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno to suspend the supervisory authority over the local police of all the mayors on the list and void the gun licenses issued to these officials.

He directed police and military personnel deployed as security escorts of the accused local officials to report to their mother units even as he ordered the cancellation of their firearms permits and licenses.

“Everybody, military and police, attached to them, report to your mother units. I give you 24 hours or I will whack you and dismiss you from the service,” he said.

A check by the Inquirer showed that some of the names that Mr. Duterte mentioned included officials no longer in office, some having lost the last elections.