(Eagle News)—The administration’s drug war sees no political nor social status, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement on Sunday, Jan. 6, after a former Maguindanao mayor was killed in an anti-drug operation.
“Regardless of the social and political status of persons involved and /or engaged in the illegal drug industry, the same fate will necessarily befall them if they resist arrest and shoot it out with the arresting officers,” Panelo said.
According to Panelo, the “law allows lawmen to use mortal violence against those who imperil their lives in the course of a legitimate police operation or arrest.“
He said the “drug menace has struck and destroyed a generation of Filipinos and threatens the next one,” and “has been the cause of the commission of crimes against persons and properties.”
He said “it made dysfunctional families of those who have been addicted to the prohibited drugs.”
“There will be no sacred cows in this administration. Those who disobey or violate the law will pay the price for their crimes or transgressions,” Panelo said.
“The President will employ any means, unconventional or not but constitutionally allowed, to enforce the law. The President shall fulfill his constitutional mandate until the end of his term,” he added.
On Friday, former Parang Mayor Talib Abo Sr. was killed after he allegedly resisted arrest.
His brother Bobby was also killed after he allegely resisted arrest in a separate police operation.
Abo was included in Duterte’s narcolist.