Malacañang on Monday said drug lords were using their money to destabilize the Duterte administration.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque issued the statement after Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano accused some human rights groups were being unwittingly used by drug lords to discredit the administration.

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READ: Cayetano: Rights groups being used by drug lords

Roque said, “The attacks against the President’s war on drugs have been vicious and non-stop.”

“We therefore do not discount the possibility that some human rights groups have become unwitting tools of drug lords to hinder the strides made by the Administration,” he said in a statement.

The Palace official said “billions have been lost” in the illegal drug trade “with the voluntary surrender of more than a million drug users, arrest of tens of thousands of drug personalities, and seizure of billion-peso clandestine drug laboratories and factories.”

“To continue to do and thrive in the drug business, these drug lords can easily use their drug money to fund destabilization efforts against the government,” he said.

Since he assumed office in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte has launched a no-nonsense war on drugs, which critics have claimed to be violating human rights. /cbb

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