Duterte on drug war: ‘We do not enjoy killing our own folk’

President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo from an RTVM video)

President Rodrigo Duterte admitted on Thursday that his bloody war on drugs was “not a good policy,” adding that Filipinos “do not enjoy killing our own folk.”

But insisting that there were four million Filipino drug addicts, Duterte vowed to wage his bloody war against drugs “until the dying days of my presidency” to rid the country of the scourge of illegal drugs.

READ: Duterte orders PNP back to drug war

The President even said that he may have ordered the controversial killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., an alleged drug lord, on Nov. 5, last year inside a Leyte jail where he was held on drug charges.

“We do not enjoy killing our own folk. It is not a good policy,” the President said in a speech in Pampanga. “But we are besieged, I said, by something that is very terrible. China is already suffering from it.”

“Four million is four million. Forty-two percent of the total barangays are contaminated with shabu. Nine thousand policemen—I do not know if I have to kill them—are in shabu business and also shabu addicts. Think about that,” he added.

Thousands of people have been killed by police in the war on drugs, drawing expressions of concern from the United States, European Union, United Nations and International groups about human rights violations in the Philippines.

“If there’s a way that we can solve this problem to the acceptance of all, fine. I will do it,” he said.

“I will walk not only the extra mile. I will walk for one day to find it. But in the meantime, I will not allow my country to go to the dogs,” he added.

The President said he will finish the drug problem down to “the last man” and that he did not care what his local and foreign critics say.

“This (problem of) drugs itong drugs, give me a ittle bit of time. i will finish it to the last man. i do not care what other people say,” he said.

“I do not give a sh** about the International Court of Justice. For at the end of the day, if my country collapses under the weight of drugs, you will not be here to help the Philippines. So, don’t bull***t me,” he added.

Both the National Bureau of Investigation and the Senate had found that police deliberately killed Espinosa while serving a warrant in his jail cell.

“The Albuera mayor, they say I ordered the killing, maybe yes, maybe no,” Duterte said.

“But if you do that—you use the public office as a platform of drugs—and drag my country and you are an elected public official and there is no election in your city because you just simply kill, and even your own policemen—and sometimes i would say maybe it’s high time,” the President said.

“I ordered the killing? Maybe yes. Maybe no. Do not go into a guessing game. You might guess it right and I would be sorry,” he added. /jpv

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