President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Friday reiterated that he can match the bounty allegedly placed by drug lords on his head.
Duterte made these statements as he defended his stance on the death penalty, saying that the death penalty law has never deterred criminals from committing crimes because of its lousy implementation.
“There will be no questions asked, let both sides make the highest bid. If they put up P100 million, I will give you [policemen] P150 million to slaughter them. I will promote you on the spot from PO1 [Police Officer 1] to general,” the president-elect said at the turnover of command of the Davao City Police Office.
Duterte said he will even be willing to promote on the spot any policeman who will “slaughter” anyone who would attempt to kill him.
“I was chosen. I never had anything to [lose]. I’m a hardliner,” Duterte said.
Relatedly, returning Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III vowed to seek the reopening of the hearing on the so-called “blue book” that contains the name of the country’s alleged big time drug pushers and carjackers.
Speaking in an interview over radio dzMM, Sotto said he would resurrect the investigation of the alleged blue book and call for a continuation of the hearing because there was no end to it.
Meanwhile, a major television network reported that a top drug suspect who surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation spilled the beans on police officials involved in the illegal-drug trade.
Alleged drug lord Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro surrendered to the NBI in Tagbilaran, Bohol, after his fellow drug suspect Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz was killed in a police operation in Las Piñas last week.
NBI Regional Director Attorney Jojo Yap on Friday said Alvaro surrendered because he feared for his and his family’s safety as authorities were already closing in on him.
“Before the surrender of Alvaro, we actually demanded that he cooperate with us before we facilitate the surrender,” Yap told ANC’s Dateline Philippines.
Alvaro is reportedly Diaz’s next-in-command in the province of Cebu.
Yap said Alvaro has given “a lot of valuable information on his network and the network of his competitors,” based on interviews by NBI agents.
“I don’t have the exact figures right now, but he mentioned several names, and unfortunately, I can’t tell you the names right now because we are trying to validate and confirm the information,” he said.
The list, however, does not include the names of the alleged high-ranking protectors of Diaz and Alvaro.
“There were no names given as protectors because according to Alvaro or ‘Barok,’it was actually Jaguar who handles that aspect of their operation,” he said.
Although no colleagues of Alvaro have sent surrender feelers, Yap said the list provided to them would be helpful in their campaign against drug operations in Cebu.
Meanwhile, Alvaro has been transferred to the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center after a decision from the courts. Yap said he presumes Barok is “safe there.”
On the other hand, the incoming Senate majority leader stressed that the sine die adjournment of the 16th Congress does not mean the investigation on the blue book was over.
Sotto promised to reiterate his motion on the controversial blue book in the coming 17th Congress so the Senate could get hold of it. “It’s good that (returning) Senator Panfilo Lacson will sit as chairman of the committee on public order.”
Lacson served as chief of the Philippine National Police under the administration of former President and now Manila Joseph Estrada.
“They should be answerable if the blue book is no longer there. What did they do with it? Did they burn it? Did they throw it away?” asked Sotto.
While he has not seen the blue book, Sotto, however, said it had the names of government officials involved in illegal drugs and carjacking activities in the country.
He said the blue book, obtained during a raid by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government in 2011, used to be with
DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, who died in a plane crash in August 2012.
He recalled the blue book was in the possession of Robredo while the Senate was conducting a hearing on illegal drugs.
“But I cannot remember if Sec. Robredo was already dead or if he was still alive at that time,” said Sotto.
He said he was somewhat irritated at that time because he filed a motion for the committee to issue a subpoena duces tecum to get it (blue book), but they refused to yield.
Until now, Sotto said no subpoena has been issued to produce the blue book before the Senate. He said no other hearings were conducted after the Senate became busy investigating a different issue.
Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) spokesperson Arsenio “Boy” Evangelista had earlier raised the possibility of investigating the blue book once again after raising concerns over the increasing number of drug-related arrests and killings in the country.
He said majority of those arrested and killed are not even the illegal trade’s “big fish,” Evangelista said.
At least 40 drug suspects have been killed since Duterte’s May 9 election victory, compared with the 39 deaths recorded in the four months before it. The PNP said there have been over 3,700 drug-related arrests from May 10 to June 15, 2016.”¨
Sotto said it was possible that some of the drug-related slays could be rivals killing each other, or corrupt cops killing their “assets.”
Last May, Duterte announced that he has set aside P3 million as “bounty” for drug traffickers, “dead or alive.”
But Sotto believes that the reward can come later and the proper procedures must be followed first.