Duterte: Cebu already a drug hotspot

MANILA, Philippines — Cebu City has already become a hotspot for the trading of illegal drugs in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday, as he emphasized that he had already warned about the threat of ISIS and terrorism months ago.

The president said that, aside from Iloilo, Cebu has already become a bedrock of illegal drug trading as these places were being used as a shipment point to different parts of the Visayas.

Duterte said that police on the island province have become involved in the trade of narcotics in Cebu although he emphasized that the government has started to clean up their ranks.

“Sabi ko nga Iloilo was the bedrock. Doon pinapadaan ang shabu sa Visayas. It contaminated all. But I see Cebu as also a hotspot sa droga kasali ang pulis. Medyo nalinis yun. We brought in SAF (Philippine National Police Special Action Force),” the president told the personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology which is celebrating its anniversary.

In June, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency office in Region 7 said that police operations against illegal drugs had cut the drug supply in the region by as much as 60 percent.

PDEA-7 Director Yogi Felimon Ruiz said then that only seven of the 19 notorious big-time drug players in the region are still in business and authorities are already hunting them down.

READ: PDEA-7: Drug war a success

According to PDEA-7, its major accomplishments for May include the seizure of around 2.5 kilograms of shabu estimated to be worth P6.37 million. The buy-busts and raids also resulted in the arrests of 27 drug suspects.

'Iloilo is bedrock of drug trade'

The president in the past claimed that Iloilo, which he described as "shabulized"or affected by shabu, was one of the centers of illegal drug trading especially in the Philippines.

A fact check by VERA Files in August 2016 found, however, that "of 81 provinces and 27 cities listed by PDEA from January to August 2016, Iloilo province ranked only 79th in terms of the number of drug-affected barangays per province, while Iloilo City ranked 51st."

During the first few months of the Duterte administration, suspected Iloilo drug lords Melvin and Meriam Odicta were killed in Aklan. The two were killed three days after they turned themselves in to authorities.

Since then, thousands more were killed in the government’s intensified crackdown against illegal drugs.

Local and international human rights groups claimed that more than 7,000 people, mostly from urban poor communities, had died from the president’s war on drugs.

Government authorities disputed this, claiming that only a smaller number of these killings were linked to illegal drugs operations of the police.

Most these deaths were still under investigation, the government said.

Duterte reiterates link between drugs, terrorism

Duterte said that he was “on the dot” with regard to the problem of drugs and terrorism as security forces continue to battle ISIS-inspired militants in Marawi City.

He said that months ago he already sounded the alarm bells on the possible link between drugs and terrorism.

He noted that money from abroad was not enough to fund widespread terror attacks.

“Sabi ko sa kanila, ‘Look, Guys. I hope I am wrong, but I see in the horizon the darkening clouds of trouble, and it could be ISIS and terrorism,’” he said.

“On the dot ako. Tama ang sabi ni Secretary Lorenzana. We knew. Ako ang unang nagsasabi, ‘Drug is fueling terrorism.’ Kasi yung mga perang remittances nila could not be sufficient to sustain widespread terror acts,” said the president although it he did not detail what steps the government had taken to tackle the threat that it claimed it had already seen.

On the day the siege of Marawi started, Duterte was on a visit to Moscow, Russia together with the country’s top defense and police officials despite the imminent threat from terrorism.

The clashes, the most serious the president has faced during his one-year administration, led to Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao.

It has already claimed more than 500 lives, most of whom were rebels. It has also displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals from Marawi and its neighboring towns and cities.