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Friday, March 29, 2024

Drug users everywhere

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When Rodrigo Duterte ran for president last year, he campaigned on an anti-narcotics, anti-corruption platform.  Duterte lamented, among others, that there is so much crime in the country because of the unmitigated proliferation of drug abuse.  He observed that the extensive drug menace afflicted both the rich and the poor, celebrities and otherwise, and involves even officials tasked by legislation to enforce the anti-narcotics law.  

Candidate Duterte posited that the drug menace is the worst possible evil to confront the nation.  Only by eradicating the drug menace, Duterte asserted, will the country be able to return to the rule of law, with graft and corruption kept to a minimum, if not eliminated completely altogether.  He also pointed out that getting rid of the drug menace will also get rid of the temptation on the part of government officials, law enforcers in particular, to become a part of a corrupt system funded by the drug syndicates. 

The Filipino electorate apparently agreed with Duterte because they gave him an unprecedented mandate as President of the Philippines in the May 2016 polls. 

Immediately upon assuming office, President Duterte waged a relentless campaign against the narcotics trade.  After threatening drug syndicates and drug addicts alike with the full force of the law, and after several drug den raid-related deaths were reported in the news, drug dealers and drug addicts everywhere began surrendering to police authorities.  Even local government officials identified by the police as coddlers of drug syndicates had to report to Manila to clear their names.

The extent of the drug menace was so prevalent that even President Duterte himself underestimated it.  Duterte had to extend, indefinitely, the time frame within which he promised to put a stop to the drug malady.

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For the past three months, heinous crimes have been repeatedly reported in the news media.  They were enough to disturb even the most unconcerned of citizens.

One such criminal incident involved the massacre of an entire household by a band of criminals who were all under the influence of drugs. 

On another occasion, a pair of teenagers who were high on drugs roamed the streets on a motorcycle to look for pedestrians to rob, since they needed money for their vice. A newspaper report revealed that several teenagers stole from others, and exchanged their loot for shabu.

There are news stories about juveniles engaged in crime of the kind which only incorrigible hooligans in earlier decades engage in.  Some have been reported to hold-up passengers of public utility vehicles, and similarly helpless people.  There are also news reports of juvenile rape.  Only drugs could have triggered these youngsters to that sort of inhumanity.

Last week, a carpenter high on drugs who was terrorizing a neighborhood with a knife was reported to the police.  When he was accosted by a policeman, the enraged carpenter stabbed the policeman, who had no choice but to shoot the aggressor.

Drug addiction has not spared the rich and the powerful.  At the height of Duterte’s campaign against drug users in public office, Quezon City Councilor Hero Bautista, a brother of Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista, publicly confessed to drug use.  Apparently because he was the mayor’s brother, he was simply allowed to go on leave from the city council in order to undergo rehabilitation.  Hero Bautista was the head of the very powerful infrastructure committee of the city council.      

How Hero Bautista got away with drug use for quite some time without being noticed by his brother the city mayor, is a mystery. 

There was also an incident in the past where in broad daylight, policemen arrested a Chinese national caught with kilograms of narcotics inside his car while he was near the Philcoa area in Diliman. Mayor Herbert Bautista beat him up on live national television, in obvious violation of all known standards of human rights.

By the way, when Mayor Bautista beat up the Chinese national, did the Commission on Human Rights complain about that incident? 

Filipinos eager to make money at any cost readily consent to being couriers of drug syndicates.  They know that the penalty for that crime is either death or a long prison term.  Despite that dreadful prospect, many, especially the impoverished, do not think twice when offered a sizeable payoff. 

At least one Filipino drug mule arrested in Communist China has been executed.  That incident caused a lot of embarrassment for the Philippines.

One more Filipino arrested in Indonesia for drug trafficking was spared the death sentence only because Manila has assured Jakarta that keeping the alleged drug mule alive may be vital in tracking down the drug syndicate behind the nefarious drug trade.   That incident also caused a lot of embarassment for the country.

Several weeks ago, P6.4 billion in narcotics was shipped to Manila through the Bureau of Customs.  When the drug shipment was discovered, accusing fingers pointed to the customs bureau chief who, in turn, implicated an incumbent senator in drug smuggling operations at the ports.  The identity of the real culprit is overshadowed only by the mind-boggling value of the smuggled narcotics —P6-4-billion!  That’s enough dope to destroy thousands of young Filipinos and their families—yes, families, because drugs destroy the core of the drug user’s family.

The fact that drug smuggling has reached that proportion should be enough to scare any law-abiding citizen, and warrant the use of the strong arm of the law against everyone and anyone involved in the drug menace.  That is the laudable objective of President Duterte.

If the drug menace is not destroyed by President Duterte during his term, it is doubtful if a president made of less stern stuff than Duterte can do it.  As it is, Duterte’s unprecedented tough, even violent, stand against the drug menace appears to be the last clear chance to save this country

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