President Rodrigo Duterte during the oath-taking ceremony at the Rizal Hall in Malacañan Palace on January 9, 2017. ACE MORANDANTE/Presidential Photo
DAVAO CITY, Phillippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday gave local chief executives a stern warning, either to resign or confess what they know, if their names were found to be on the drugs list, among other personalities involved in the illegal drugs trade.
Speaking at the oath taking of the 200 newly-appointed government officials held at the Rizal Hall in Malacanang on Jan. 9, Duterte said that mayors will be having a problem dealing with him if they found their names on the drugs list.
“I will call on the mayors,” Duterte said “look for your name mayor, if your name is there you got a problem.”
“Either you resign, made a clean breath of everything, come up with who knows [what], then we talk,” the Mindanawon president pointed out.
Duterte said that a city with drug trading incidents, was either allowed by the city local chief executives, including the city, provincial, and municipal police.
“If the mayor, chief of police, allowed it [drug trade], the people is dead,” he said. “If the municipal, provincial commander, chief of police; if they are conniving at we do not know, we are already in a narco politics two elections ago.”
It can be recalled that back in 2016, two mayors were killed because of their alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade.
October 2016, Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan in Maguindanao was killed including nine others, early morning Friday, Oct. 28 after his convoy were flagged in a military check point in Makilala, North Cotabato.
On November 2016, Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera Leyte who was detained for his involvement in the illegal drug trade was killed inside his cell in an alleged shootout with the state operatives at Leyte Sub-Provincial Jail in Baybay City.
Both Diamaukom and Espinosa were enlisted on Duterte’s drug list which includes more than 150 government officials whom he tagged were part of the so-called “narco-politics.”
Duterte had warned officials that a man hunt operations will be conducted by the state operatives if they wouldn’t surrender to the authorities.
Meanwhile, the newly-appointed officials were to be designated in agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, state universities and colleges, judiciaries, and other government institutions. (davaotoday.com )
