INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
STA ROSA CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte was merely offering words of “encouragement” to police officers when he told them to shoot dead local chief executives found to be protecting illegal drug operators, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said Saturday.
President Duterte met with mayors from all over the country in Malacañang on Wednesday and warned them against being involved in the drug trade. The president allegedly told the mayors that should they refuse to join the government’s anti-drug war, they would be shot dead by police chiefs assigned to their own cities or municipalities.
Dela Rosa was asked to comment on President Duterte’s warning Saturday at the launch of a drug rehabilitation facility here.
“That is only to embolden policemen. They can kill if the suspect fights back. If they arrested them but the suspects fought back, engaged them in gunfight, they should shoot back. It’s the way it is,” Dela Rosa said.
“All of us, we are all operating within the bounds of the law. You can’t just go to them and then kill them… that’s murder. What the mayor (President Duterte) meant was to encourage our policemen not to be afraid of greedy (drug syndicate) protectors who are mayors,” he said.
The newly opened drug rehab facility stands on a 1,000-sqm government land adjacent to a campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Barangay Tagapo, and can accommodate about 200 former drug users. For the program, the city government tapped Bridges of Hope, a foundation focusing on drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
In his speech, Dela Rosa, who said he was also at the Malacañang meeting with the mayors, said the President presented a long list of names of alleged narco-politicians, as well as judges, prosecutors, and PNP members involved in the illegal trade.
“I cannot deal with the drug industry by myself. That is how bold the people involved are. So he (Duterte) said he will help me,” Dela Rosa quoted the president as telling him.
Dela Rosa said the drug war was no longer just a task for the national government, but also required the help of local executives.
However, some mayors were “lukewarm” to the campaign, he said.
“Maybe they are just lazy or they are involved,” he added. “Or they are not inspired because they lost money as protectors of drug lords.”