AT AN event during his official trip to Russia, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said that two generals are involved in illegal drugs trading. He, however, did not identify the two generals.

“And right now, even as I fly here and go back. There are about again two generals who are still playing with drugs. And I said, ‘Well, I told you, do not destroy my country because it is being flooded with drugs,’” Mr. Duterte said at the Forum of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia.

Mr. Duterte also hit at critics of the government’s bloody war on drugs, saying that he encourages people to kill drug lords and drug addicts. “You know, frankly, I would be happy to, if that things happened,” he said.

“This is [the question] I would pose to the entire community of the world. Is it wrong for a President to see — to say, rather — that: ‘Do not destroy my country especially the children because I will kill you?’ And that was my order to the Armed Forces and to the police,” he added.

The President’s comments came amid an investigation by the Senate into so-called “ninja cops” who are allegedly involved in the selling of drugs seized during police operations.

The Bureau of Immigration is also seeking the deportation of alleged drug queen Guia Gomez Castro, who is supposed to be involved with some “ninja cops,” after her visa to the United States was cancelled.

At the forum in Russia, the President also said that he wants the “world and the United Nations and to everybody” to know that he will take responsibility for the consequences of his drug war.

In July, 18 of the 47 countries in the UN Human Rights Council voted in favor of a probe into the human rights situation in the Philippines due to the deaths in the war on drugs.

According to the police, more than 6,000 people have been killed in the war on drugs as of May this year. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

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