Duterte takes swipe at De Lima’s award, says she remains on narco-list

MANILA — President Duterte took a swipe at Senator Leila de Lima on Monday, saying a senator “glorified” with an award in Washington D.C. was on his latest list of government officials protecting the illegal drug trade.

De Lima flew to the US to accept an award from an American group, calling her one of the 100 Foreign Policy Global Thinkers recognized in Washington.

But Duterte has dismissed this citation as mere glorification of a politician in deep trouble with the law.  He has accused De Lima of accepting drug protection money from high-profile inmates of the New Bilibid Prisons who he had linked to illegal drugs and drug traffickers outside of prison.  De Lima has denied the allegations and has accused Duterte of supporting the murders of drug suspects.

In the same speech, Duterte linked former Iligan City officials to the narcotics trade saying that its former representative Vicente Belmonte and former mayor Lawrence Cruz were included  in his voluminous narcolist.

Mr. Duterte also named a certain Mayor Willy Lim as being on the list.

These officials were the latest to be tagged by the Chief Executive, who has promised to keep up with his anti-drug campaign amid concern and criticism over the rising number of deaths of drug suspects.

Mr. Duterte once more defended his crackdown on the narcotics trade and explained his directives to law enforcers to be relentless in their pursuit of drug traffickers and the destruction of the illegal drugs apparatus.

Before brandishing his list of officials linked to drugs, the President said the Philippines had been a narco state for years, and the extent of the problem would not have been discovered had he not become Chief Executive.

He said that when he started to “squeeze” everybody, he found out that barangay chairmen, mayors, governors and several congressmen were involved in the distribution of shabu, or methamphetamine hydrochloride.

“We have been corrupted and this is why I cry every night,” he said.

Mr. Duterte said he had given a copy of his drug list to the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate because he could not handle the problem alone.

Speaking at the Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas, he said the drug problem in the Philippines was “very serious” and that it was not easy to go about rehabilitating drug addicts that by his count had reached 4 million.

This was the reason for his stern warnings to drug users and peddlers, he said. “Stop drugs or I’ll kill you. You want to stay alive? Stop drugs. You want death? Go on with the drugs,” he said.

He reiterated his promise that the campaign would continue up to the last day of his term.

Mr. Duterte again denied that government forces have been ordered to exterminate drug suspects.  He said a third of the nearly 6,000 who have died in his war on drugs died during shootouts with cops in legitimate police operations and the rest were killed by still unidentified groups.

Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, whom he had called to help the police fight the drug scourge, would never follow orders to execute drug suspects, he said.

“If you force them to commit a crime, they will mount a coup d’etat, believe me, all of them, the officers, the noncommissioned and commissioned officers,” he said.

“We have an armed forces who will never, never do that,” he added.

But he also said that about a third of the drug suspects were killed in encounters with the police.

He said the police usually won in such encounters because they operate in groups.

He knew about such things because when he was Davao City mayor, he walked the streets at night, even alone.

Mr. Duterte mentioned Belmonte and Cruz as drug protectors in northern Mindanao in a speech before business leaders last week.

In an interview with a radio station in Iligan on Friday, Cruz denied the accusation. “I am innocent. Even if I have to undergo a drug test today, I will test negative,” he said. Politics could be behind his inclusion in the list, he said, but he did not name names.

Cruz said he now feared for his life and could end up dead like Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., who was killed inside his detention cell after being tagged as one of the biggest drug lords in Eastern Visayas.

Cruz said he feared his house would be raided and evidence planted just to back up Mr. Duterte’s information.

There was no immediate reactin from Belmonte. (With a report from Jigger Jerusalem)  SFM