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.
President Rodrigo Duterte reveals the names of active and retired local government officials, members of the judiciary, and police and military personnel who are allegedly involved in illegal drug trade during his visit at the Naval Station Felix Apolinario (NSFA) in Panacan, Davao City on August 7. SIMEON CELI/PPD
Names mentioned were associated with wrong municipalities or provinces. One judge named has long been dead.
“I could be wrong. This is not a trial and as I’ve said, I’m sorry. But, you know, my (mistake) is inferior to my duty … If I’m wrong, so be it. I will accept the consequences,” Mr. Duterte said.
“I will accept full responsibility. That’s the way how to act as President,” he said. “It’s very important for the people to know the state of things or conditions in this country. That is my sworn duty.”
Among the prominent officials mentioned by the President were incumbent Mayor Jed Mabilog of Iloilo City―a known close ally of Iloilo native Sen. Franklin Drilon―and former Mayor Michael Rama of Cebu City.
Former Mayor Ryan Dolor of Bauan, Batangas province, has been linked to the murder of Mei Magsino, a former correspondent of the Inquirer’s Southern Luzon Bureau who was shot dead in Batangas City last year.
The President named several other officials of Iloilo, which he referred to as the “most shabulized” place in the country, apparently emphasizing that it was where the sale of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) was most rampant.
“I will say that I have nothing personal against them, in Iloilo,” he said.
Also on the list were Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and his daughter, Vice Mayor Nova Princes, who went to Dela Rosa’s office in Camp Crame last month after they were linked to convicted drug lord Herbert “Ampang” Colangco.
Mr. Duterte expressed his disappointment that some of his personal friends and a supporter had also been included in the list, which, he said, was “validated and revalidated” by the military and the police.
He was referring to Rama, who had supported the presidential run of former Vice President Jejomar Binay in the May 9 elections, and Mayor Omar Salitario Ali of Marawi City, who has been indicted over the fertilizer fund scam by the Office of the Ombudsman.
“He’s a personal friend. He’s with us with the cause, but I’m sorry because your name appears here,” he said of Ali.
“I said, you know, we’re friends, Rama (and Ali). Either I read all or I read not. I cannot play. In my job, I cannot play. I have to read all who are here (on the list),” he said.
The President said Jeffrey Celis, whom he identified as a party-list representative, worked as his campaign leader in Panay region.
Mouth not tied up
Like in his previous speeches, Mr. Duterte said he was not bound by law to provide due process to those he publicly named.
“Maybe these people would be charged, administrative or criminal, then they should have due process,” he said. “Presumption of innocence? That’s in the Constitution. I will give it.”
“But my mouth knows no due process. That due process has nothing to do with my mouth. There are no proceedings here, no lawyers.”
“That’s why we ended like this. You are the enforcers but you allowed yourselves to be used,” Mr. Duterte added.
“You destroyed the country,” he said, cursing them.
Outlining the extent of the drug problem that worsened during the administration of Benigno Aquino III, officials say drug pushers are active in 99.2 percent of Metro Manila barangays, 26.9 percent of the 42,000 barangays nationwide are grappling with the problem and 1.33 million Filipinos are drug users.
Police and vigilantes have been blamed for killing over 800 drug suspects since Duterte’s election on May 9.
