‘Lameduck’ but bullheaded

Describing himself as a “lameduck President” since he will not seek a term beyond 2022, President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday he will be stubborn in implementing his programs.

“I do not give a s*** about criticisms, particularly from those who are playing politics, they cannot accept defeat,” Duterte said in a speech.

“Look, I have hit the firewall. I cannot run again. For all intents and purposes, actually I am a lameduck President. If you are talking about politics, okay. I will not interfere anyway because after this, I cannot even run for a barangay captain,” he said at the 117th anniversary celebration of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame.

He also warned policemen involved in illegal activities, saying “bad eggs” taint the credibility of the entire police force.

“If we cannot do something now about drugs, your grandchildren will suffer. We would leave a life and a nation to them that is still in shambles,” he said.

The President also vowed anew to look after cops slapped with charges related to the performance of their duty.

He said he would even be willing to still give salaries to cops who were suspended in the performance of their duty.

“When your life is in danger, you stick to the law. I will be here, as a president. I will never allow you to go to jail. Just do our duty,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Duterte had said he would “kill” corrupt police, including those accused of involvement in illegal drugs and other crimes, in an expletives-laden encounter on live TV.

More than 100 policemen, many of them facing administrative and criminal complaints including rape, kidnapping and robbery, were escorted to the Palace to meet Duterte, police officials said.

The national police, which Duterte once called “corrupt to the core,” have been undergoing an internal cleansing since they were removed twice from the President’s crackdown on illegal drugs last year due to reports of abuses.

Duterte later allowed them to rejoin drug raids, partly because the small lead anti-narcotics agency lacks personnel and firepower to quell the drug menace.

“If you’ll stay like this, son of a bitch, I will really kill you,” Duterte told the policemen in the dressing-down broadcast by local TV networks.

The cases of some of the policemen will be reviewed, but Duterte warned, “I have a special unit which will watch you for life and if you commit even a small mistake, I’ll ask that you be killed.”

Addressing the policemen’s families, Duterte said, “If these sons of bitches die, don’t come to us yelling ‘human rights, due process’ because I warned you already.”

Duterte has vowed to press his anti-narcotics campaign until the last day of his six-year term, often declaring that he is ready to go to jail, although he denies sanctioning extrajudicial killings. Police say nearly 150,000 drug suspects have been arrested and dozens of law enforcers have been killed in drug raids, proving the danger of battling illegal drugs which remains a major problem.

The Bureau of Customs and anti-drugs authorities announced Tuesday night the discovery of about half a ton of methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally called shabu, concealed in two steel cylinders in two abandoned container vans at Manila’s International Container Port in one of the largest drug seizures under Duterte.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Aaron Aquino said the vans came from Malaysia which a drug syndicate may be using as a transshipment point.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena warned that Customs personnel linked to drug traffickers would eventually be arrested. “The fact that this did not get through this time is an indication that many no longer want to cooperate with the drug syndicates,” he told reporters.