DAVAO CITY -- Mayor Rodrigo Duterte gave the local police a shoot-to-kill order against those who would sneak out and sell the eight bricks of high-grade cocaine that are still unaccounted for up to now.
In his television program "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" on Sunday, Duterte said he believes the eight bricks were kept and hidden.
He warned those who had the bricks to return them or else they would face the consequences of their deeds.
"Oras na mugawas na unya ila ng gamiton, ibaligya ngari, they will become a drug lord because of the volume. So, naa koy shoot-to-kill order, especially if they will resist arrest and put up a violent fight -- ipaagi nila ingon ana...we can enforce the shoot-to-kill, (Once they go out and use or sell them, they will become drug lords. I have a shoot-to-kill order, especially if they resist arrest - if they do that, we can enforce the shoot-to-kill,)" Duterte said.
Duterte earlier said that anyone who has a brick should just return it, and no questions will be asked.
He added that he has no reason to believe that anyone is directly involved in the issue, since this is a move from an international syndicate.
Duterte said he would rather issue a shoot-to-kill order than allow anyone who holds the cocaine to sneak out and sell it in the city and nearby areas.
The authorities first recovered 24 bricks of cocaine weighing about 25.968 kilograms inside a Maersk container van around 7 p.m. of March 22.
On Sunday, the authorities recovered 27 more bricks weighing a total of more than 27 kilos. As of March 25, at least two more bricks weighing more than two kilos were found at the vicinity of the wharf.
On April 1, a truck operator from Sumifru wharf surrendered a total of three bricks of high-grade cocaine at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Davao Region office, bringing the total haul of recovered bricks of cocaine to 56 with eight bricks still missing.
The authorities confirmed that the packages contain high-grade cocaine, after the PDEA operatives conducted their field examination on one of the recovered bricks.
The seized drugs were brought to the PDEA-Davao office for qualitative and quantitative examination. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)