PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he will treat a syndicate that is manipulating bidding on public projects like drug suspects, so that it would be “easier to deal with them.”
“It’s unlawful to kill, but you want to put them in the category of drug suspects so that it would be easier,” Duterte said in a speech in Clark, Pampanga. “If you say, ‘They’re drug users,’ their names could be added to the list of human rights [violations]. Then that would be okay. What do I care if they die or not?” Duterte said in Filipino.
The President described the group as “gangsters” who did nothing but go around looking for bids to fix.
On Nov. 28, Duterte accused a certain Manny Cuevas, with links to former House speaker Prospero Nograles, of rigging bids to make a profit in high-level government contracts in various administrations. John Paolo Bencito
