"President Duterte is doing it the wrong way."
"President Duterte is doing it the wrong way."
President Duterte has admitted that he may not be able to fulfill his promise of eradicating illegal drugs. I am not sure if he was quoted correctly, but if he was, he was probably reacting to news of the continued entry of various drugs to the country.
From the start it was a huge mistake to have considered the war on drugs a matter of law and order. It was an oversimplification of the issue that required the police to step in, and brutally.
The drug problem is a health issue that necessitates health solutions like, for instance, the establishment of community-based rehabilitation centers.
This is why I could only shake my head when Mr. Duterte made that sweeping promise that he would end the drug problem soon. I thought then that he was doing it wrong. Look at what happened to Colombia. It was beset by the drug menace for a long time, until the government went after the cartels. After this, the cartels moved to other places.
Why do you think drugs continue to enter our country?
First, the demand remains, and the suppliers are only too happy to respond to that demand.
And then, there is the fact that the Philippines has become a transshipment point for worldwide distribution of drugs.
As I said, the answer is community-based rehabilitation centers.
Why? In rehabilitating an addict, the family is needed. I know this for a fact since I worked at DARE Foundation of former priest Bob Garon.
That rehab center in Laur, Nueva Ecija is not working because it is not community based.
I can understand the President’s frustration. The war does not seem to end. It’s because he is going about it the wrong way. The cops can kill the last pusher, but so long as there is demand, the problem will not end.
What should be done, then? This is why I support Duterte’s move to make public the list of narco-politicians.
As for the continued entry of drugs here, the police and the PDEA need to be vigilant.
Unfortunately, Mr. Duterte has focused on poor communities because they are easy to detect.
The President indeed has to rethink his war on drugs.
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Another promise was to end ecoruption. We all cheered when the President fired his close friends and allies upon a mere whiff of corruption.
Well, he did fire some, but he re-appointed others or simply transferred them.
Now at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, with the resignation of general manager Alexander Balutan, now comes Sandra Cam with an alleged P500-million resort in Masbate.
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If the public has little confidence in the war against corruption, only the President is to blame. It was in the aftermath of a Commission on Audit report that flagged the lawyers of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel for having excessive allowances from the GOCCs to which they were assigned.
When the head of the OGCC started inquiring into this anomaly, a whispering campaign against him started. Somehow his enemies succeeded in maligning him and he was fired.
Note also that the COA had found that Solicitor General Jose Calida and other lawyers were getting excessive allowances. But the President did not do anything.
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Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo claims that the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago was never appointed to the International Criminal Court.
The truth was that she did not accept her appointment right away. Thus, former UP Law Dean Raul Pangalangan eventually took her place.
For Panelo to say that Miriam’s appointment to the ICC was void is fake news. Santa Banana, the Philippine government even lobbied for Miriam’s appointment!
When Panelo said that the government need not pull out Pangalangan’s appointment because we were never an ICC member, he simply displayed his ignorance, Santa Banana!
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