Duterte admits PHL drug situation had worsened

President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said that the illegal drug trade in the Philippines had worsened amid his administration's intensified campaign against it.

"But if you tinker with drugs and if you continue to feed our children with drugs and trafficking... Things have worsened. My policemen are at the brink of surrendering," Duterte said during his speech at a campaign rally of the PDP-Laban in Cagayan de Oro City.

The president said that the public should not be encouraged by the billions worth of intercepted drugs as these were mere decoys.

"Don’t believe that it’s one billion. The next day there will be another one point three billion. That’s just an excuse. That’s a bait," he said.

Duterte then pointed to the difficulty of guarding the shoreline of an archipelago, through which drugs could be smuggled.

"Actually there are other billions coming in. The Philippines is contiguous, island for island. There are seven thousand islands. Just choose where you want to land. It’s different from America which is just one stretch of border," he said.

"In the end, we will be like Mexico. We will be controlled by drug cartels. The Sinaloa has already entered the country and that is why drugs are being thrown in the Pacific. The same is happening in the West."

Before winning the elections in 2016, Duterte vowed to solve the country's drug problem within six months.

The deadline, however, was extended to six more months until Duterte said he would continue the drug war until the end of his six-year term.

Last month, he blamed his own government's functionaries, who were allegedly also involved in the drug trade, for his failure to fulfill his campaign promise. — Dona Magsino/DVM, GMA News