THE revelation of President Rodrigo Duterte that no less than 10,000 government officials are on the list of those involved in the illegal drug trade shows the magnitude of the drug menace.
In that one-foot thick list are government officials: barangay officials, mayors, governors, and even members of the judiciary and prosecutors.
This validates my opinion that despite the additional 60 days that the President sought to end the drug menace, he may not even succeed at it during his entire six-year term.
The illegal drug trade will never end until the demand for illegal drugs stops. And so long as there’s demand, cartels outside the country will find ways to meet it.
There’s Customs where smuggling remains rampant. My gulay, go to Cash and Carry and see how all those imported goods got into the market operated by Chinese. Go to Divisoria and wonder how those Christmas decorations proliferate. Even banned firecrackers are now being sold in anticipation of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
If illegal drugs don’t pass through Customs, nothing can stop their entry. We do have porous borders.
There is the bigger problem of rehabilitating drug users and addicts. Building rehab centers is not enough. They have to be staffed with psychiatrists, drug rehab experts, doctors and nurses. That takes a lot of money.
There are over 75,000 drug addicts who have surrendered and are now packed like sardines in jails. The Department of Health is making a big thing out of the building of a rehab center in Fort Magsaysay, Laur, Nueva Ecija that can accommodate 2,600. And there are existing private and public rehab centers now bursting at the seams. So where will we put the rest?
Now this list. That presents a big public safety problem. But the Constitution can allow suspension of the writ of habeas corpus or arrests without warrants in cases of invasion and rebellion when public safety requires it. There is to be no other reason.
With the great number of government people involved in the illegal trade, it becomes a problem of national security. The illegal drug trade can fund rebellion and terrorism.
The President is on the right path by furnishing Congress and the National Security Council copies of his list. With the magnitude of the menace, there must be ways to arrest it short of killing all those involved in it.
Then again, as I said, killing every drug lord, financier, dealer, protector and the last pusher will not end the menace so long as there’s demand for illegal drugs.
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So, the Marcos-haters had their day last Friday, which they called Black Friday. What exactly did they achieve?
Nothing really, but the propagation of hate. They expressed hatred toward the Marcoses for the burial of the late strongman at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. They said it was their attempt to prevent the revision of history. Marcos was not a hero, they said, adding that they would not forget the atrocities of Martial Law and plunder committed against the people.
But then, there was never an issue of Marcos being a hero or not. The burial was simply because Marcos was a soldier and president. And there’s no law preventing it.
As for Martial Law and plunder, let history be the judge.
What saddens me is that there is a lot of hate, coming at a time when we should be preparing for the coming of the Christ.
The irony of it all is that most of those who joined the rally were students and members of the militant groups. Most of them were not born yet during martial law. What made it worse was that the majority kept its silence.
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I watched last week’s investigation by the House of Representatives of the lover/driver/bodyguard Ronnie Dayan of Senator Leila de Lima. I have never seen lawmakers feasting upon the salacious aspects of a love affair. They engaged in slut-shaming just to satisfy their prurient tastes.
And they say call themselves Honorable? They debased themselves and the institution to which they belonged.
I would not wish what the House of Representatives is doing to De Lima on my worst enemy. But I still cannot sympathize with her. She should have realized that she had tremendous responsibility. And I cannot buy her “frailties of a woman” excuse.
My gulay, we deserve the people we elect into office!
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One of the most corrupt agencies in government, and President Duterte is aware of it, is the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. That’s why I’m rather surprised that the President is not making the PCSO a primary target in the administration’s anti-corruption campaign.
The Small Town Lottery project, which is supposed to replace “jueteng,” is now controlled by the very same gambling lords that government wanted to replace. In fact, many STLs in Ilocandia, Central Luzon, Rizal, Batangas, Cavite and Laguna are now in the control of a well-known Chinese who used to be associated with past administrations.
And like “jueteng,” corruption goes all the way up to Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo. If President Duterte is alarmed about illegal drugs, he should be concerned how corruption has gone into the operation of STLs.
The President may have appointed well-meaning PCSO officials, but they can’t do it alone.
If the drug menace is now a threat to national security, so is illegal gambling.