(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte said he would not let the Filipino youth be destroyed by drugs, stressing that this was a campaign promise that he made and he would not renege on it.
The President also stressed the importance of rehabilitation of illegal drug dependents, which is a twin program of the Philippine goverment’s fight against drugs.
On Saturday, March 25, President Duterte led the groundbreaking ceremony of the a site where a mega-drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation center will be built in Barangay Casisang, Malaybalay City, Bukidnon.
The Friends of the Philippines Foundation (FPF), composed of Chinese businessmen, has donated P700 million for the establishmnet of a drug treatment facility in the province.
P700 million drug rehab facility to be built in Bukidnon
The Malaybalay City government, on the other hand, alloted a five-hectare property for the said project.
President Duterte thanked the Chinese “for being extra generous to us” for helping the Philippines by building rehabilitation and treatment centers for drug addicts in the country. He also thanked President Xi Jinping for his support for projects that will help in the development of the country.
“I will do anythng to preserve the Filipino people,” he said.
He recalled his campaign promises to eliminate corruption and criminality, including the drug problem.
I cannot renege on campaign promise to eliminate drug problem, says Duterte
“I cannot renege. I cannot now go soft, because if I do that, I will have condemned my country to doom,” he said.
Duterte recalled that most of his years as a prosecutor, he spent prosecuting drug cases.
He also recalled his first years as a Davao City mayor where he encountered the ills of the drug menace.
But it was only when he became President that he came to know about the real and grave drug situation in the country — that there were now four million drug addicts in the country.
“When I became President, I did not realize that shabu has contaminated the country,” he said.
“I was appalled to realize and to know that there were four million drug addicts already,” he added.
Duterte said his critics should go back in time to check the facts — that even before he sat as President, there were already many extrajudicial killings. And this was still during the time of former President Benigno Aquino III.
Then when he came to be the chief executive, he learned about the gravity of the drug problem.
Duterte says 77,000 innocent people killed by drug addicts
He questioned his critics, why they kept on harping about those killed in the drug war, and even included those killed outside police operations.
He said the critics failed to mention that those who were killed by the drug addicts numbered 77,000.
And most of these are young people, even children who were raped and harmed before they were killed.
“You read the crimes that were committed before the drug campaign. Look at the victims, children who are raped, two years old, night shift workers and everybody else,” he said.
“Most of them were committed by the drug addicts,” he added.
“Apparently in the Philippines during the previous administration, the fear of the law disappeared. And this is what we have been trying to pound on the critics,” the President said.
Duterte said he would be ready to face responsibility for the killings done during the police operations.
Duterte says he’ll accept full responsibility for those killed during police operations
“It is true that many were killed in police operations, and for those who implemented my order, I accept full legal responsibility, the liability is mine and mine alone because somebody has to give the marching orders for them to operate,” he said.
“My orders to the police, arrest them if it is possible. go out and hunt for them. but if you are confronted with a violent resistance, for which many policemen today, if you think that your life is in danger, my God shoot and shoot them dead before you are killed,” he said.
The President dared those who felt there was something wrong during the police operations to file a case so he can answer it.