Duterte to Peter Lim: Commit suicide

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday advised businessman Peter Lim, who remains at large following his indictment on drug charges, to "kill" himself.

"If I were you I would commit suicide. Never ever surrender to me alive...ikaw pa magpatali sa leeg mo," the President said in a speech in Malacañang.

Duterte later told reporters that Lim might still be “active [but] whether he is in or out of the Philippines we do not know that for sure.”

“But the network and the money laundering of Peter Lim is very much alive. So I’m just reiterating my warning here na this drug problem is a national security threat. Meaning to say it can destroy the Philippines. And the orders are: destroy the enemy,” he said.

Judge Gina Bibat-Palamos of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 65 ordered Lim's arrest in August last year after the court determined there is probable cause to put him, self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa, and their other co-accused on trial for a case for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.

Police, however, had failed to locate Lim at either of his two addresses in Cebu City.

The Palace earlier urged Lim to surrender to authorities and prove his innocence in court. 

The President and Lim stood as primary sponsors in a wedding held in Lapu-Lapu City on June 25, 2016.

Duterte and Lim crossed paths again in Davao City on July 15, 2016 during which the President threatened to kill the businessman if evidence would prove that he is the "alias Jaguar" who handles illegal drug operations in the Visayas.

Lim denied to Duterte that he was that person. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ/NB, GMA News