FILE: President Rodrigo Duterte meets Peter Lim in 2016.

MANILA (UPDATE) - President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday lashed out at alleged drug lord Peter Lim, telling the latter to “never surrender to me alive.”

“Peter Lim, if I were you, I would commit suicide. Never ever surrender to me alive… I-abbreviate mo na. Ikaw na magtali sa leeg mo (Shorten it. Just tie a rope around your neck),” Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang following his signing of the Universal Healthcare Act.

The President then told reporters in a chance interview after his speech that Lim might still be active.

"Whether he is in or out of the Philippines we do not know that for sure," he told reporters.

"But the network and the money laundering of Peter Lim is very much alive. So I’m just reiterating my warning here that this drug problem is a national security threat. Meaning to say it can destroy the Philippines. And the orders are: destroy the enemy."

The justice department earlier indicted Lim for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading, along with self-confessed ‘shabu’ distributor Kerwin Espinosa, Marcelo Adorco, and Ruel Malindangan.

The government has since put a P500,000 bounty for his arrest.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) where Lim was identified as the source of ‘shabu’ allegedly sold by Espinosa's group in Regions 7 and 8 in 2013 and 2014.

A warrant of arrest has been issued against Lim, who is being located by the National Bureau of Investigation and the police.

In 2016, Duterte met with Lim, one of the three alleged leaders of drug trafficking operations in the country.

He then urged Lim to go to NBI to clear his name.