Duterte on drugs inside Bilibid: I would have declared martial law if I were the President then

Had President Rodrigo Duterte been the chief executive when illegal drugs allegedly proliferated inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), he would have declared a martial law.

Duterte said this in a speech delivered before the 10th Infantry (Agila) Division in Mawab, Compostela Valley while urging the public to monitor the House probe on the drug trade within Bilibid supposedly during the time of Sen. Leila de Lima as Justice secretary.

“Saan tayo makakita a country allowing drug syndicates to operate inside the Muntinlupa and directing the traffic?” the President said.

“Sa totoo lang, kung ako ang president at [the] time, I would have declared martial law. Tutal there was really a rebellion dito eh. Nagpapatayan. We lose soldiers. Ako ngayon, I lose on the average two policemen a day kasali ang military because I have ordered you guys to join because of the widespread,” Duterte pointed out.

The President previously invoked martial law after Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno sent a letter asking him to reveal his sources when he named seven judges linked to the narcotics trade. 

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea also recalled that Duterte mulled declaring martial law after a bomb exploded in Roxas Night Market in his bailiwick Davao City which left 15 people dead.

Duterte's martial law remark in Compstela Valley came on the eve of the 44th anniversary of the late President Ferdinand Marcos' imposition of Martial Law throughout the country in 1972.

Marcos signed Proclamation 1081 or the Declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972. Marcos announced the declaration on television two days after.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also declared Martial Law in Maguindanao province in 2009 after the massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan town through Proclamation 1959. — RSJ/NB, GMA News