President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that the Philippines is a client state of Bamboo drug triads.

"This drug (problem) now is being operated by the 14K, Bamboo triad. They have taken over," he said in a speech at the 120th anniversary of the Department of Justice.

He also mentioned about the drug triads in the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) event in Manila Hotel later.

"The Philippine today is a state client of the Bamboo Triad. They have taken over the operations of sad to say, the Chinese, but I do not mean the country and people, in a sense that most of them are really into this kind of business," he said.

He said the syndicate was cooking shabu on the high seas. This was the reason empty bins with Chinese characters were being recovered in Northern Luzon.

He said the illegal drugs came from Taiwan.

"Philippines is a transshipment of shabu to America and it behooves upon America to work closely with the Republic of the Philippines especially on this serious matter," Duterte said.

Duterte has declared an all-out war against illegal drugs. Celerina Monte/DMS