MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED)  – President Rodrigo Duterte warned of “grave consequences” as he made the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) the “sole agency” in charge of handling his bloody war on drugs.

“That is fraught with many grave consequences,” Duterte said on Friday, October 13, at the opening ceremonies of the Buglasan Festival 2017 in Dumaguete City.

“Sinugal ko yan, pero alam ng lahat ng military pati police, the consequences of that could be far more serious,” Duterte said. (I gambled on that, but the whole military and police know that the consequences of that could be far more serious.)

Duterte, however, said priests and human rights groups have “appreciated” what he did.

Duterte was referring to his memorandum on October 10 directing the Philippine National Police, among others, to leave the drug war to the PDEA.

In a statement, Amnesty International’s Director of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Jamez Gomez said the Philippine government “must instead immediately signal a clear shift in policy” when it comes to the drug war. 

“President Duterte has pulled police off drug operations once before, in January this year, only to reinstate them a few weeks later. We are concerned that this too may be nothing but a short-term PR move in response to growing public outrage about the drug war’s many victims, which are overwhelmingly poor, and include children.

He pointed out that the memorandum would mean nothing “as long as the Duterte government’s fundamental policy of supporting extrajudicial executions of drug suspects remains in place.” 

“President Duterte has pulled police off drug operations once before, in January this year, only to reinstate them a few weeks later. We are concerned that this too may be nothing but a short-term PR move in response to growing public outrage about the drug war’s many victims, which are overwhelmingly poor, and include children,” he added. 

In a Saturday, October 14 statement, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella downplayed the the rights group’s statement. 

“The government will proceed in its drive to make the Philippines a crime, corruption and illegal drug-free nation. We are hopeful that operations of this agency will not be jeopardized by the interference of outside agencies that fail to appreciate our desire, not for a drug- tolerant, but drug-free nation,” he said. – Rappler.com