Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to drug suspects: ‘Want to live longer? Stay in jail’
The Philippines president issues a new threat in his bloody anti-drug crackdown
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told drug suspects on Tuesday that if they wanted to live longer, they should get arrested and then stay in jail.
In the latest threat he has made in his bloody anti-drug crackdown, Duterte did not identify the targets of his warning in a televised speech but referred to people who grew rich through illegal drugs in Cebu province.
“You know if I were you guys in Cebu, stay in jail. You want to live longer? Stay in jail,” Duterte said. “Look for your own reason to be in jail. Do not go out of that facility. It would not be healthy for you.”
At least one high-profile drug suspect, though, was shot to death by police in his jail cell.
Police killed Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of the town of Albuera in central Leyte province, inside a jail in 2016 in what they said was a gun battle, but government investigators declared it a murder. Murder complaints against an officer and his men involved in the shoot-out were later downgraded to a lesser charge that allowed their release on bail and reinstatement onto the force.