MANILA - Taiwan denied Monday that it has been supplying illicit drugs to the Philippines, contrary to the claim of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte recently alleged that the Bamboo Union, a Taiwan-based crime syndicate, has taken control over the narcotics trade in the Philippines, which is supposedly being used as a transshipment point of shabu deliveries to the US.

"Taiwan is not the source of drugs and that Taiwan never exports drugs to the Philippines," Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines Gary Song-Huann Lin said at the celebration of the Taiwanese foundation anniversary in Pasay.

Manila and Taipei's joint efforts have seized some P3.2 billion worth of illegal drugs in the last 3 years, Lin noted.

"I wish to reiterate that Taiwan fully supports the Philippine government’s endeavor to root out the drugs proliferation and that we will continue to cooperate with all of the Philippine law enforcement agencies to combat transborder crimes and drugs trafficking," the envoy said.

Lin also mentioned that the bilateral trade between his country and the Philippines has increased to $10.87 million in 2016.

Both countries, he added, also enjoyed a higher turnout of tourist arrivals in the past years. There were 172,475 Filipinos who went to Taiwan, while there were 196,617 Taiwanese who visited Philippines in 2016.

Taiwan is also home to 144,439 Filipino workers who are protected by labor laws.

Recently, the Taiwan government said they would offer a visa-free entry for Filipinos for 14 days. The exact implementation date of the visa-free policy has yet to be announced.