President Duterte plans to submit his final, validated narco list to the National Security Council within the week.
Speaking before the San Beda Law grand alumni homecoming at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City on Saturday, the Chief Executive said he will also provide a copy to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
“Maybe before the end of the month, I will submit that report to the National Security Council. And I will give each of them a copy, and then the Senate President and the Speaker of the House,” Duterte said.
“Let us formulate (a plan) how to prevent disaster for the next generation,” he added, noting that the problem on illegal drugs is a virulent issue that threatens to destroy the future of the country.
“Mabuti pa nga ang terrorism eh. I would rather deal with terrorism because actually, it’s just violence for a moment. Pagkatapos ng engkwentro, at least you know that you’ll suffer some wounds or you die, but nahayaan kasi natin ang (drug problem) except during the time of President Ramos,” said Duterte.
In his speech, the President said that the start of the campaign and even when he was still mayor of Davao City, he was very emphatic about the issue that it would destroy the country if it is not interdicted.
“When I was campaigning, I was already mentioning some generals who were involved in the drug industry and I warned them but hindi ko na lang sinasabi ‘yung pangalan. Pag ako ang naging President, hahabulin ko kayo and there is still time, maybe you want to quit now that hindi pa ako ang naging Presidente,” he recalled.
“So nung nanalo ako, I named the already known personalities but to my horror so nung nanalo ako, I named the already known personalities but to my horror, after the so many names that I mentioned, the final report of the PDEA from all sources collated from the intelligence community, the NBI, lahat. Binigyan ako ng kopya na ganun kakapal. So sinabi ko, medyo maproblema ito,” he added.
The President said he then called members of his Cabinet and told them, “Hindi ko ito kaya. And even if assuming na sinasabi nila na pinapatay ko, sabi ko sa kanila, I will run out of time and bullets because in this report, nandiyan na lahat.”
Duterte said he had the list, which he previously said contained names of thousands of government and elected officials, validated several times.
During the course of validating the list, he said, some of the names he already mentioned keep on cropping up, particularly that of retired Chief Supt. Vicente Loot, who is now mayor of Daanbantayan, Cebu.
“Maski saan region – Region 1 intelligence report, lumalabas yung pangalan niya. Sabi ko, why this guy? ‘Yun pala kung saan siya na-assign noon, he was playing all along the drug industry,” said the President. (Elena L. Aben)