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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Saturday, February 4, 2017
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“CHANGE is coming.”
Printed on T-shirts and streamers, heralded on the radio, and headlined endlessly by tabloids and the mainstream media, the slogan has become an inescapable rallying cry of President Rodrigo Duterte and his supporters.
In his first six months in office, the former Davao City mayor steered the Philippines into a divisive time — slammed by critics as he is venerated by his legions of followers — mandating widespread reforms that rattled the entire nation.
The cornerstone of Duterte’s brand of “change” is a double-barreled war on drugs, fueled by his own experience as a hard-lined local official in the south clamping down strong on the illegal trade.
“There will be no letup to this campaign. We will not stop until the last drug lord, last financier and last pusher have surrendered or put behind bars or below the ground if they so wish,” Duterte declared in his first State of the Nation Address in July 2016, to the resounding cheer of a full-house Batasang Pambansa.
Fifty-year-old mother of five Nanay Melba* has seen for herself the sweeping change endorsed by Duterte in the congested neighborhood of Barangay Rizal Pala-Pala II, Iloilo City.
While admitting that the antidrug crusade has sprung significant good in some aspects, she continues to be wary of the “change” our current president is trying to peddle.
“Gapasalamat gid ko nga subong nag-untat na ang druga, galing ang masakit subong biskan wala ka salâ, nagbag-o ka na, gina-amo ka pa na,” she says, concerned and worried.
The issue hits close for Nanay Melba. More than a decade ago, she and her husband turned to selling shabu from their small home to provide for their family, especially their youngest son, Paulo*, who was just a little over 2 years old at the time.
“Sa kapigadohon ginkilanlan gid,” Nanay Melba says of their decision to sell prohibited drugs. There was a time they could not afford to buy milk for their children. Their newborn was subsisting on sugar mixed in water. Wanting to provide for them better, the couple took to trading shabu.
She has long given up selling illegal drugs. But the rising number of drug-related casualties —more than 7,000 as of Jan. 31, according to Philippine National Police (PNP) data — worries her. On the eve of the “suspension” of the war on drugs, PNP chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa admitted the crusade was abused by rogue officers and opportunistic syndicates.
Nanay Melba reveals that during the election period she seriously considered voting for the tough-talking politician. She was “bilib gid (very impressed)” and hopeful of Duterte’s plans for the country, but she was eventually convinced to choose another candidate.
“Akon tani botohon si Duterte, kay syempre hambal ya mareporma sia sa druga, pero wala ko ga-expect nga muni kadamo ang mapatay.”
Her grandson seated on her lap, Nanay Melba asserts that she got into the drug trade purely for her children. She maintains that she has never, not even once, tried snorting drugs, but also admits her husband was once a user. When she was into the drug trade, she says, she vowed not to sell to minors, including students.
“Ang mga estudyante wala ko ginabaligyaan. Ginasiling ko sa ila, ‘Maluoy ka sa imo ginikanan,’ kag ginapapuli,” she explains. “Ako nagbaligya lang gid ko para lang sa akon kabataan, nagbaligya ko pero wala gid ko nagtilaw.”
For a time, selling drugs provided well for her family, until Paulo was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 4 in 2004. The shattering news forced Nanay Melba to take a hard look at the life she led. Not long after, her husband was arrested and sentenced to jail for drug possession, a case that would be dismissed six years later.
Nanay Melba was left to singlehandedly provide for her children, including Paulo, who was quickly becoming ill. She knew she had to change.
“Nakapaminsar ko nga ang bata ko basi nagkabalatian kay ang gina-obra ko ilegal kag malain. Nagpangadi ko nga ‘Lord, hatagi ko last chance, untatan ko ni, para nga mabuhi bata ko,’” she says. “‘Kon mabuhi bata ko, pangako ko simo, mauntat ko. Kon mabalik ko baligya, kwaa kabuhi sing bata ko, indi ko pagbasol sa imo.’”
In 2004 Nanay Melba stopped selling drugs to make good on her promise, taking on numerous odd jobs as the lone breadwinner of her family, “Nagbaligya ko isda, naglabada, halos tanan ginsudlan ko para mabuhi ko akon pamilya.”/PN
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(* Not actual names; to be continued on Tuesday, Feb. 7)
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