‘I never gained a single cent’ from war on drugs: PRRD

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday maintained that his administration’s campaign against illegal drugs was launched for the Filipino people, and not for his personal gain.

Duterte reiterated that he is only willing to be tried and prosecuted by a Filipino judge in a Philippine court and not by “white people” at The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).

“I’m not threatened when they threaten to send me to prison. But what I don’t want is to be tried and prosecuted by white people in the Hague Court and be imprisoned there, too,” he said in a speech in Bais City, Negros Oriental.

He slammed the ICC for intervening in the Philippines’ affairs.

“I will never consent to be judged by white people. Do they think I’m crazy? Why are they interfering with our laws?” he added.

Duterte said he never gained anything from his administration’s crackdown on illegal drugs.

“Remember this, okay? Everything that I have ever done as President, I never gained a single cent. I only did that for you, to save your children from the perils of drug addiction. Once they get hooked on that, their brain will begin to shrink,” he said.

He pointed out that drug addiction ruined lives and turned people into criminals.

“That’s how it would start until you start doing holdups, killing people. That’s why I said that this is for the Filipinos. I have nothing to gain from that,” he added.

In a speech in Zamboanga on Dec. 2, Duterte said he may have failed to completely wipe out illegal drugs and criminality but did as much as he could with the time he had.

“For as long as there are men on this planet, there will always be misdeeds and wrongdoings committed by a human being. Be that as it may, sinabi ko (I said) I tried my best and hindi ko naman sabihin na ano pero mukhang nakumpleto ko halos lahat nang ipinangako ko sa taong bayan (I don’t need to say what they are but I have delivered almost every promise I made to the people),” he said.

In September, the ICC announced that it has opened an investigation into the Duterte administration’s drug war and those in Davao City by the alleged Davao Death Squad from 2011 to 2016.

The Philippines formally asked ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to defer its investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in November, noting that the government is already investigating these crimes.

The ICC “temporarily suspended” the investigation but asked the Philippine government to provide “substantiating information” on proceedings it cited when the latter sought deferral of the probe.

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