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President Rodrigo Duterte has warned that if the government would not address corruption and maintain law and order, it would continue to lag behind its neigbors in Southeast Asia.

In a speech in Mandaue City on Thursday, Duterte recalled that the Philippines used to be second to Japan in terms of progress until it continued to slip.

"Many years from now or a few years from now, or maybe a year after, if we cannot stop graft and corruption and cannot maintain law and order in this country, Philippines should never reach the level of economic progress enjoyed by Malaysia and Indonesia on the present level," he said.

"It would take us about 10 years or 15 years to catch up, maybe more than," he added.

Duterte said it would not need to take a serious study to know the problem.

This was the reason, Duterte said his administration has been trying to address the problem of corruption and criminality.

Since he assumed office, Duterte has declared an all-out war against illegal drugs.

But the anti-drug campaign has been highly criticized due to alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.

According to official data of the Philippine National Police, over 4,000 individuals were already killed in the government's anti-drug operations.

As to his campaign against corruption, Duterte has fired several officials, including Cabinet members.

However, he was also being criticized as some of the officials who quit from the post after corruption allegations have been appointed to other government posts. Celerina Monte/DMS