President Rodrigo Roa Duterte listens to the discussions in the plenary session of the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos on September 6. KING RODRIGUEZ/PPD
VIENTIANE—President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday dismissed as “total fabrication” the reports that he identified former President Fidel V. Ramos as the source of information regarding senior police officials involved in the narcotics trade.
READ: Duterte: Drug list not from Ramos
Curiously, the President’s statement was released by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza.
READ: Duterte: Ramos showed me list of generals, cops in drugs
“To say that the source of the narcotics list came from President Ramos is a total fabrication,” the President said.
This despite the video and official transcript of Mr. Duterte’s speech released by Malacanang showed that he indeed named Ramos as the one who provided him with the information on the so-called “narco-generals.”
“President Ramos went to Davao four times… At first, he did not show me anything. He just said, ‘You must run because it’s about time that Mindanao would have its own president,’” Mr. Duterte told a group of Filipinos at the Feungfar Convention Center on Monday night.
“The second time, he was strongly urging me to run. He said, ‘It’s only you who knows how to stop this.’ Then he showed me a list of the generals (involved) in illegal drugs. It was this thick,” he said, gesturing to the crowd how thick the documents were.
He then quoted Ramos as telling him, “If you keep on refusing, this country will go to the dogs.”