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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Thursday, November 9, 2017
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DOES President Rodrigo Duterte believe that his war on drugs could eventually be won by killing drug lords, drug pushers and drug users? Let’s see:
“’Yung namatay daw kanina sa Bulacan, 32, in a massive raid. Maganda ‘yun. Makapatay lang tayo ng mga another 32 everyday, then maybe we can reduce what ails this country.”
Do you still remember? Those were the shocking words he said in a speech before the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) on Aug. 16, 2017. He was commenting on a police operation that killed 32 drug suspects in Bulacan in one sweep.
You see, his own words make up the stuff that his critics exploit to pin him down on the issue of extrajudicial killings that mock the rule of law.
If killing were the solution to the illegal drug problem in the Philippines, then Duterte would have to order the Philippine National Police (PNP) to kill all drug suspects.
His new spokesman, Harry Roque, would probably justify the “joke” as the best way to scare pushers and users into “retirement.” But there is no indication of that. On the contrary, the President who promised to eradicate illegal drugs from three to six months now says he needs all of his six-year term to do it.
In the one year and a half that Duterte has been in office, protected drug lords still pop out where least expected. The latest “catch” is Diana Yu Uy, a resident of a condominium unit near Malacañang Palace, with P15-million worth of shabu. What spoiled the fun of the raiding Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents was the presence of two policemen from the Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG) acting as her bodyguards.
She could have gone away unscathed had the PDEA agents accepted her P5-million bribe offer, admitted PDEA head Aaron Aquino. That must have been an exception to the expression, “When money talks, everybody listens.”
Diana is daughter of Yuk Lai Yu, 72, an illegal drug convict still active in the shabu trade while serving time at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW).
A government apologist has tried to blame former President Aquino as “protector” of the younger Yu. PNoy having long gone out of office, that would be like admitting such “protection” has not expired under the present dispensation.
The sincerity of the Duterte administration to lick the problem is best proven by its inaction on the P6.4-billion worth of shabu seized from a Valenzuela City warehouse. To this day, we have yet to know how the shipment from China had passed through the “green lane” of the Bureau of Customs. As a result, the social media now throbs with “naughty” commentaries linking personalities very close to the President to that big haul.
Another proof of selective injustice is the apparent disappearance from the headlines of Mayor Aniceto Lopez Jr. of Maasim, Sarangani, caught by the PDEA one month ago in possession of P5-million worth of shabu. The last news item about him quoted Sen. Manny Pacquiao as having offered to take him into custody.
As in the movies, on the other hand, there are still drug lords who behave like respectable social climbers rubbing elbows with politicians, businessmen, celebrities and even law enforcers – all of whom benefit from their generosity.
The drug lords do not care if their pushers drop dead; there are many other risk-takers willing to push because of the desperate need for money.
As long as there are drug lords enjoying government protection, a Duterte multiplied a thousand times would not suffice to win the war on drugs. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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