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'KUNG BUHAY PA AKO'

Duterte: I will bring drug problem to its ‘lowest’ before term ends


President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to drag the drug problem to its "lowest" point in the remaining five years of his term.

“I assure you, by the time I make my — kung buhay pa ako — five years from now, drugs will be at its lowest,” he said at the 11th Ambassadors’ Tour Philippine Reception in Davao City on Friday night.

Duterte’s term will end in 2022.

A year after he launched a controversial anti-drug campaign that saw the death of thousands of drug suspects, the President on Saturday reiterated that there are four million drug addicts in the country.

“You know, you create a generation of slaves. Wala nang gawin ‘yan kung hindi maghanap ng droga araw-araw to have his fix. They are addicts, practically slaves to a chemical. And they plunder, they kill if they do not have the money to do it,” he said.

“Anong gawain ng gobyerno with that kind of insidious—buhayin kita? Hindi kita patayin but I will destroy you. By what? When you destroy a person, you destroy a person. He becomes extinct. That’s really what it is. Huwag kayong pumasok diyan kasi,” he added.

Duterte had previously issued statements threatening to kill criminals, and offering protection to authorities who would "hunt them down."

“Get out of my city if you’re doing drugs or other crimes, because if you don’t, I’ll kill you. It is never wrong for a President to say that,” Duterte said.

“To all the military men and to all the police, go out and hunt for them and I will protect you," he said.

During the campaign period for the May 2016 elections, Duterte and his running mate Foreign Affairs Sec. Alan Peter Cayetano promised to bring an end to the drug problem in the country, as well as crime and corruption in three to six months. If not, both of them would resign.

When he became President, Duterte extended his self-imposed deadline, saying he did not expect that narco-politics had become deeply ingrained in Philippine society.

He also said that the war on drugs would not end until the last pusher in the country had been eradicated. — MDM, GMA News

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