SAN JOSE DEL MONTE, Bulacan - Cash rewards will be granted policemen who will keep drug suspects alive and locked up in jail, rather than send them to the funeral parlor.
PDP-Laban (Pimentel wing) and PROMDI Party presidential bet Sen. Manny Pacquiao made this pledge as he vowed to continue pursuing the war on drugs but apparently not in the same “level of ferocity” that President Rodrigo Duterte demonstrated.
“Hwag natin silang patayin, kawawa naman ang mga pamilya na maiiwan. (Let us not kill them, let’s have pity on the families who will be orphaned),” Pacquiao said in a press briefing here.
“Naghihirap pa ang mga tao, sayang naman ang buhay. Bigyan natin sila ng chance para makapagsimula at makapag-bagong buhay. (People are still suffering, life should not be wasted. Let us give them a chance to start a new life),” he stated..
A deeply religious individual, Pacquiao was asked to comment on Duterte's statement that the person who should replace him as president must show the same “ferocity” he demonstrated in the drug war.
He said due process will have to be accorded drug suspects even as cash incentives will be made available to police accomplishments in the narcotics war.
During his first two years as president, over 6,000 Filipinos, mostly suspected drug pushers and addicts, were killed in reported police anti-drug operations.
Asked for his reaction to Duterte’s statement, Pacquiao said he had conducted his own anti-drug war as early as 2011-2012 in his province in Saranggani.
Pacquiao, who was still a congressman then, had encouraged police to pursue a strong program against illegal drugs by offering them cash rewards for every arrest of suspected drug pushers and users.
The arrest, he said, should lead to the filing of charges or the rehabilitation of those involved.
“Kapag may accomplishment, ipakulong natin hindi patayin. Marami na akong napakulong. (When there is an accomplishment, we have them jailed, not killed. I have sent many to jail),” he disclosed.
“Pwede naman natin ituloy ang war on drugs, but in the right way,” he said.
During Monday night’s “Talk to the People”, Duterte said: “These drugs, I hope the one who would sit as next president will continue, if not the ferocity that I did, or even a little lower than my standard.”