PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte underestimated the extent of the drug problems in the nation.
A few days after he was sworn in and assumed office he was shocked to learn that five police generals are protectors of the drug syndicates. Few weeks later, he discovered that the distribution hub of drugs in the country is right inside the premier penitentiary which is directly supervised by the Department of Justice!
What was more shocking however was that there were more barangays listed as drug infested than there drug-free. Then came the revelation that elected government officials and policemen were either drug protectors or into drug trading themselves.
His anti-illegal drug campaign shifted gears and he launched a total war on drugs. This resulted in more than 3,000 casualties and more than a million drug users and peddlers who submitted themselves for rehabilitation and training for livelihood projects.
The social elite and political oppositions along with their confessors in the bishopric squirmed at the death statistics and conveniently stonewalled the gains of the campaign which saved many young children who submitted themselves to rehab. But the poor communities who want order in their places of abode are cheering Duterte. His popularity in independent surveys would confirm this, indicating that more than twice the number of the 17-million voters who elected other presidential bets had realized Duterte was the right man after all.
The opposition tried wickedly and vaingloriously attempted to denigrate President Duterte by calling him murderer and the father of the Davao Death Squad (DDS). I was dragged into this issue myself when Duterte declared on nationwide TV that I knew the whys and wherefores of DDS. I have written the facts about DDS several times in my columns. That DDS was in fact a ghost force that was conceptualized by then Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police Regional Commander Dionisio Tan-gatue Jr. That in truth and in fact Duterte was simply a budding lawyer appointed at the height of communist insurgency as assistant city fiscal when DDS surfaced.
Because I have to buttress that story following the President’s statement, I have to look for retired General Tan-gatue and get a direct statement from him. I had his statement on video owning to the creation of that phantom force. He also dismissed the crap that Duterte was behind DDS saying: “he (Duterte) has no clout, he has no clout whatsoever in those times.”
Where will the statement and allegations of detained Senator Leila de Lima and Senator Antonio Trillanes be in the light of Tan-gatue’s affirmation. Now, how will the perjured witnesses Matobato and Lascañas be described and labeled? They are not ghosts and neither are they phantoms.
Duterte’s entry into politics was not a walk in the park. When the Communist Party of the Philippines or New People’s Army lost their stronghold in the ghettos of Davao City, they exited as quickly as when one wakes up from a nightmare. Crime syndicates crept into the city but the most tenacious and destructive of these was the drug syndicates.
It is no secret that Duterte himself sometimes would lead campaigns against lawless elements. He was there in a raid on drug laboratory where Chinese suspects were killed in a gun battle. He drives a taxi or his motorcycle way past midnight to conduct his own inspection of police stations and perchance a thief would board his taxi so he can deal them with. That is the leader who’s got the gumption, the one with “the fire in his belly” as University of the Philippines Proferssor Clarita Carlos would describe.
And so welcome to Davao City’s anniversary celebration! The land of the free where diverse people live in unity and respect of each other cultural diversities and religious faiths. The city once ruled by armed insurgents and criminal syndicates is now the exemplar of a peaceful, livable and progressive city in the world.
Who knows? You might have a unique opportunity to have a picture taken with the President of the Philippines. After all he has always been our prime tourist attraction.
