Rizal Hall, Malacañan Palace
December 7, 2016

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte led the 4th State Conference of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Implementation Review at the Rizal Hall of Malacañan Palace.

In his keynote address, the President guaranteed to all the event attendees that there would be no corruption under his administration, saying, “Dito sa akin, okay kami. There will be no corruption, I will assure you, 100%”. He stressed that among the challenges that the country is facing today and need to be addressed is the worsening trade and use of illegal drugs.

The Chief Executive once again showed a document containing the profiles of thousands of suspected illegal drug users and dealers all over the country. He reinstated his order to the law enforcers in tracking down all those responsible in this trade.

“I said we are fighting a war, it is an assault on my country, and I will not allow it. Go out and destroy the apparatus of the drug lords. At ilang beses ko sinabi ‘yan time and again over TV, go out and hunt for them, arrest them if possible, so that we can get the information, but if they present a violent resistance… and you feel that your life is in jeopardy, shoot them dead,” he said.

Furthermore, President Duterte shared the ongoing peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), as well as expressed his gratitude to the leftists for their participation in the ongoing negotiations between the Government of the Philippines and the communist groups in Oslo, Norway.

“I will do everything to prevent my country from being fractured. If we cannot give, you will remember me after… Mahal ko talaga ang bayan ko,” he said.

The UNCAC is an anti-corruption convention implemented on December 14, 2005. It is a multilateral initiative that obliges State Parties to monitor and implement compliance with its provisions. To promote and review the execution of UNCAC, the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention (COSP) was established. In its third session, COSP adopted the resolution 3/1 or the Implementation Review Mechanism (IRM), wherein as a State Party, the Philippines was last reviewed in 2011 and will be reviewed again in 2018.

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