Phl summons Chinese envoy over drugs from China
The government said yesterday it had summoned the Chinese ambassador earlier this week to explain reports that traffickers were bringing in narcotics from China, opening a new front in President Duterte’s controversial war on drugs.
On Tuesday, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa told a Senate hearing that China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were major sources of illegal drugs, and Chinese triads were involved in trafficking.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. told a Senate hearing yesterday that the Chinese ambassador had been summoned for an explanation, and the government would also send a diplomatic communication to Beijing to “pursue this in a more aggressive note.”
“( The ambassador) said that this is not true and I told him these reports are based on intelligence information, they have been validated so far as we are concerned, so I wanted a clarification from him,” Yasay said.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in the antidrugs campaign since Duterte, nicknamed “the Punisher,” came to office seven weeks ago, according to the police, and nearly 700,000 drug users and drug peddlers have turned themselves in to escape the crackdown.
Speaking at a military base outside Manila yesterday, Duterte said China has offered to build rehabilitation centers for drug addicts in military camps and has invited Dela Rosa to visit Beijing to see what equipment Chinese police use to fight drugs.
In another development, China has sought information from Filipino authorities to help capture suspected Chinese drug traffickers in the Philippines and wants to forge a stronger anti-drug pact to fight the menace, the Chinese ambassador said, while also cautioning that generalizations should be avoided.
Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said late Tuesday that police in China and in the Philippines have exchanged visits recently for joint training and intelligence sharing in growing cooperation between the Asian countries in the fight against illegal drugs.