President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday he was planning to order drug users to stay in their homes to keep them off the streets and stop them from turning to crime to fund their habit. If they defy him, they would have to face dire consequences.

In his speech during the San Beda College of Law Alumni Homecoming, Duterte cited observations that drug users who would rob or kill others to get money for their fix were no longer loitering in the streets at night, apparently afraid of being caught.

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“How do we make it permanent in the coming days?” he said. “I will make it a must, a mandate that all of you affected by drugs, do not leave your homes. I do not have prisons. Go inside your homes and lock the doors.”

“Pag lumabas kayo, putang ina kayo, papatayin ko kayo pag makita ko kaya sa labas,” he said.

(If you go out, you sons of bitches, I will kill you if I see you outside.)

He said these drug users could not just be treated lightly by tapping them on the shoulder and appealing to them to stop their habit for the sake of other Filipinos.

“Can we legislate fear, respect for the law?” he said.

He defended his administration’s war against illegal drugs in his speech, saying he was doing it for the next generation.

He also said he was planning to send copies of the report on the illegal drug trade to the National Security Council and the leaders of Congress so that they could formulate a plan on how to handle the problem. /atm

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