[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’RODY RECALLS SLAIN ODICTAS | Revives ‘most shabu-lized’ tag on Iloilo’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=”]
Saturday, March 25, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_image src=’http://www.panaynews.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/front-duterte.jpg’ attachment=’100942′ attachment_size=’full’ align=’center’ styling=” hover=” link=” target=” caption=” font_size=” appearance=” overlay_opacity=’0.4′ overlay_color=’#000000′ overlay_text_color=’#ffffff’ animation=’no-animation’][/av_image]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte reminded the public that he once branded Iloilo as the “most shabu-lized” area in the Philippines.
He recalled the slain Odicta couple in a speech before the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. on Friday.
Suspected drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta and wife Meriam were allegedly the top distributors of drugs in Iloilo.
“The Odicta couple, who were executed somewhere in (Aklan), they were running the show on the Western side,” Duterte said.
The President also recalled tagging Iloilo as “most shabu-lized” in the country.
“’Di ba I said that Iloilo was the most (shabu-lized)? Sila ’yon e,” he said.
Odicta and his wife were killed at the jetty port in Barangay Caticlan, Malay, Aklan on Aug. 29, a few days after they met with Interior and Local Government secretary Ismael Sueño to clear their names.
Duterte first called Iloilo “most shabu-lized” in a speech on Aug. 7 last year where he also linked four mayors and several police officers to drug trafficking.
According to the President, mayors Jed Patrick Mabilog of Iloilo City, Alex Centena of Calinog town, Siegfredo Betita of Carles, and Mariano Malones of Maasin were “drug coddlers.”
“Iloilo grabe talaga,” Duterte said in Barangay Panacan, Davao City at the wake of four soldiers killed in an ambush by communist rebels. His speech was aired live by state television PTV-4.
The President would mention Mabilog and tag him a “drug protector” several more times in succeeding speeches.
Last year Duterte also shrugged off the death of the Odictas.
“That is not my problem. He was wanted, and he was the No. 1 drug lord. Talagang drug lord ito,” he said. “Iyang Odicta, he was really being hunted. Inabot talaga siya ng malas. Sino ang sumunod dito kay Odicta? Bakante ngayon.”
Odicta “was corrupting everybody — lahat, pati iyong mga governors,” Duterte claimed.
If by “shabu-lized” Duterte meant Iloilo as the province or city where the use of shabu, or methamphetamine hydrochloride, is most prevalent, data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) fail to directly coincide with the President’s claim.
Of the 81 provinces and 27 cities listed by PDEA from January to August 2016, Iloilo province ranked only 79th in terms of the number of drug-affected barangays per province, while Iloilo City ranked 51st, a VERA Files report said.
The top 10 cities with the highest number of drug-affected barangays are located in the National Capital Region, consistent with earlier PDEA reports, the report fact-checking Duterte’s claim, which was also published in Panay News, stated.
In his speech on Friday, Duterte also criticized human rights groups for defending drug suspects killed in police operations.
His administration’s war on drugs will continue until the last drug lord is killed, he stressed.
Millions of Filipino lives have been destroyed because of the illegal drug trade, the President lamented.
“These human rights (organizations) would grieve for all of these idiots who were born into this world just to destroy their fellow men,” Duterte said./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
