Excerpt from President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s speech during the birthday of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez

Ngayon, Presidente na ako. I will insist on corruption. It has to stop. I will fight the drug problem to the last day of my term. It will not stop.

I was wrong when I said that I could stop it but at that time, I was uttering the words when I was only mayor of Davao City.

But I was a bit successful in cleaning the city, a certain degree. But really, to make it drug-free is something which is really impossible.

It was not until after I became President, I said, “I’ll finish within three months,” that I had access to all information about drugs and its dimension in the entire country.

So doon ko nalaman na kalaban ko na pati pulis, kalaban ko na ‘yung Customs, kalaban ko na lahat and I was up against a formidable group of…

Alam mo, you cannot go into a drug business without an organization.

So pagka may organization talaga --- from the one who cooks, to the one who distributes, to the one --- ‘yung mga basurero, ‘yung sa labas, peddling drugs.

And most of the time, they are using itong mga minors and sad to say, actually, the law --- it was not Pangilinan but it was his law that provided for this kind of environment now.

Pati ‘yung mga pulis, kayo, alam ninyo, mga mayor. You cannot arrest, even detain for a moment, a minor.

And you are not even allowed even to lecture on him or to him, even a minute of what accountability means to society.

Wala eh. Kaya paghuli, pagsabi minor eh, and that is why, ‘yun pati mga bata ginagamit.

And worse, they say, “Si Duterte, ang pinapatay niya, ‘yung mahihirap.”

As I said, you cannot operate a drug syndicate without an organization.

So the law says that the one who cooks, the one who distributes, and the one who peddles the drugs are equally --- equally guilty.

The act of one is the act of all because it is a conspiracy. That is the law.

And my oath of office says that I have to enforce the law against everybody who violates the law.

So kung ikaw, mahirap ka sa buhay, I cannot do anything and say, “Hindi kita hulihin, hindi kita patayin kasi mahirap ka lang.” That would be a selective justice.

And I cannot say that this law is only for the rich but not for the poor.

But remember, shabu is a merchandize for the poor. ‘Yung nandiyan sa Forbes Park, nandiyan sa Dasmariñas, they do not do it with shabu. They do it with cocaine and heroin.