PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has said he will not interfere in the cases involving his son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, and his son-in-law, Manases Carpio in the runup to their appearance today at the Senate which is conducting an inquiry into the P6.4-billion shabu mess that slipped past the Bureau of Customs.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, the President said his son should be able to handle his problems all on his own, adding “he has his own lawyer; he’s about 38, 37 years old. He’s old enough to know and he can take care of his problem.”
“I do not speculate. I do not give him advice. I just said, ‘if you are really innocent, why don’t you go to the Senate?’” he added.
Duterte said he had to be very careful to avoid creating an unnecessary impression.
“I would leave it [the case] to the lawyers. Because if I give an expectation, media will begin to speculate. I have to be very careful,” Duterte said.
On Saturday, the President said he would advise his son and his son-in-law to appear before the Senate if they were invited to hearings on corruption at the Bureau of Customs.
But the President said their presence would not help opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV prove his case because they could always invoke their right to remain silent.
Meanwhile, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada directed the Manila Police District to neutralize the sources of drugs still finding their way to the capital, which the city police suspect was part of the P6.4-billion drug shipment smuggled out of BoC last May.
Citing a report by MPD director Chief Supt. Joel Coronel, Estrada said the local demand for drugs, especially shabu, was still high amid the city police’s concerted anti-drug operations in the past weeks.
“This is quite alarming. Drugs from outside sources continue to arrive in our city. We have to trace its origins and neutralize it in soonest possible time,” Estrada said as he relayed his instructions to Coronel.
Coronel revealed intelligence reports stating huge deliveries of drugs to the city still continued.
“We have monitored that there’s still [drug] supply coming in,” Coronel said.
“We suspect this was part of the shipment smuggled out of Customs,” Coronel added.
The P6.4 billion worth of shabu seized in Valenzuela City last May triggered a Senate investigation as to how it managed to pass through the BoC.
The controversy prompted the resignation of then BoC chief Nicanor Faeldon due to allegations of corruption and negligence.
As tasked by Estrada, Coronel said efforts were being made to track down the sources of drugs that continue to arrive in the city and delivered to local distributors.
“Our monitoring and law enforcement operations are continuing. This will be until the Christmas season. We have to disrupt these supply lines and shut it [sic] down permanently,” Coronel said.
Only last month, the MPD conducted a “one-time, big-time” anti-drugs and criminality operations that resulted in the deaths of 25 suspects, mostly drug pushers, and the arrest of 166 more.
The simultaneous anti-criminality operations were carried out in Sta. Cruz, Sampaloc, Malate, Tondo, and Abad Santos Avenue, among others, Coronel added.
To reduce the demand for drugs, Coronel said the MPD was closely working hand-in-hand with the city hall in implementing various drug demand reduction strategies such as Estrada’s anti-drug education program Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
“We’re now concentrating on demand reduction programs, so aside from police operations, we coordinate with different barangays through Madac [Manila Anti-Drug Abuse Council] chaired by Mayor Estrada himself,” Coronel pointed out.
Originally from the United States, the anti-drug education program is a classroom instruction module that taps active duty police officers and soldiers to teach Grades 5 and 6 students good decision-making skills to keep them away from drugs and other vices.
