President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his keynote message during the opening ceremony of the Philippine National Games at the Cebu City Sports Complex in Cebu City on May 19, 2018.
ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
President Rodrigo Duterte has reiterated his warning to rogue policemen involved in the illegal drug trade that he would kill them should they cross paths.
“Your time will come. But I have already warned you. If you and I bump into each other, it won’t be nice … We will really be killing each other then,” he said on Saturday.
In the two years since he assumed his post, thousands of suspected drug pushers and petty criminals have been killed in police operations and summary executions allegedly carried out by vigilantes.
‘Plenty of them in Cebu’
The President pointed out that in Cebu alone, there were still many police scalawags involved in the illegal drug trade.
“But even if you attempt to kill them, you can’t totally wipe off police who are involved in the drug trade because there are still plenty of them here in Cebu,” he said in Visayan.
“Especially here in Cebu. There are plenty of rogue cops here in Cebu City—not Alegria. Yes, that’s true. I’m not holding my punches,” he said.
The President admitted that when he promised to end the drug menace in just six months, he did not realize then the enormity of the problem.
Back then, he thought that cleansing the Philippines of illegal drugs and crime would be just similar to his stint as mayor of Davao City for two decades.
He pointed out that it was only when he was elected to the presidency that the enormity of the illegal drug problem was discovered, and that it was swept under the rug for years.