MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is leaving the investigation into the alleged drug links of Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and Manases "Mans" Carpio' — his son and son-in-law — to independent agencies.
In his arrival speech late Tuesday night, Duterte said: "Who would believe me if I investigate my son and my son-in-law? You, can you investigate your mother or father? I leave it to the independent agencies."
He did not name the agencies but the Office of the Ombudsman is an independent body that investigates allegations of corruption. Duterte said in October that he "would tend to believe" that Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, to whom he is related by marriage, is part of a conspiracy to oust him from office.
The chief executive was responding to a statement issued by detained Sen. Leila De Lima who said that the government is going after "imagined and fictitious drug lords" instead of probing the alleged links of Vice Mayor Duterte and Carpio to drug smuggling.
De Lima, an outspoken critic of Duterte, said the president and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II should focus on "drug smugglers living inside his own household," instead of going after Sen. Franklin Drilon, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas or dismissed Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog.
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The younger Duterte and Carpio are said to have been part of an influential Chinese group that receives bribes from smuggling operations.
The two denied the allegations thrown against them by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV when they appeared the Senate in its own probe into a P6.4-billion shabu shipment that slipped through the Bureau of Customs in September.
Duterte, asked to address the issue Tuesday, only reiterated his earlier statement that police can shoot his kin if "they are really guilty."
"Didn't I already say that when I was still a mayor? What was my order to the police? 'Shoot them, even if they're my children. At (and) that statement remains. Shoot them," the firebrand leader said in a mix of English and Filipino."
"If one uses drugs, or holds drugs, shoot him. Extrajudicial killing, if you want, and I can understand," Duterte added.
Several former officials of the Bureau of Customs, including ex-Customs Chief Nicanor Faeldon, are now facing drug raps at the Department of Justice. The complaint was filed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
No complaint has yet been filed against Vice Mayor Duterte or Carpio.
READ: DOJ junks Faeldon's plea to dismiss drug raps