Duterte wants to torch Bilibid

MANILA, Philippines - Since one-fourth of the local market for illegal drugs is controlled by the drug lords detained in New Bilibid Prison, President Duterte said yesterday he will have the NBP burned to the ground.

The President also criticized how the NBP appears to have been controlled by drug operators.

“How can it happen that when you inspect Bilibid, you have to ask permission from the idiot inside. This is my first day. I’m warning them there, they have the TVs there inside,” Duterte said, referring to the drug lords in the NBP.

“So, start counting the days…you are putting the government to shame. It’s like you slapped us many times… Start counting the hours. Do not count by the day, I do not want you counting the day,” Duterte warned.

In his speech before the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), he told soldiers of his “zero tolerance” for illegal drugs.

“Where can you find a government where drug trafficking is being controlled inside the Bilibid prison? And it is like being slapped many times. And how it came about is really, well I would know, by neglect,” Duterte said in yesterday’s turnover of command for the AFP at Camp Aguinaldo.

Duterte, during his campaign, had mentioned the NBP where he said thousands of drug suspects are detained for their illegal activities but still continue their illicit trade.

“These are the things that we have to stop and that is why I said I would be harsh, not cruel, but I would be harsh and I have no tolerance for drugs. Zero. So, this is the fight that we have now. Those of you who are on vacation from the fields in Mindanao and in the Visayas… you might want just to join the hunt for them. We will eliminate the drug lords once and for all. We have to stop this practice in Bilibid,” Duterte stressed.

Duterte reiterated that he would risk everything to put an end to the drug problem. 

“If you destroy my country, I will kill you. If you destroy our children, I will kill you. If I am asked by anybody, including the Commission on Human Rights, I do not know you,” Duterte said.

“I’m not threatening you. I’m just telling you that there is always a time. For us, the security forces, the armed forces and the police, there is always a time. We can only take so much insult. We can only take so much... all that we could stomach. But me? I already feel like vomiting,” he added.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said they are considering transferring the drug lords at NBP to a secluded island to stop the illegal drug trade.

Aguirre said officials are also considering Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City and Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal as possible prisons for the drug lords.

Another option would be to install a “very strong” signal jammer since the drug lords do business with the use of mobile phones, he said.  – With Evelyn Macairan