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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Time to say ‘goodbye’ to illegal drugs?
NO doubt about it: Despite his “put_ na” and other cusswords, President Rodrigo Duterte remains popular. This is evident in the social media, especially on Facebook where his fanatic followers praise him to high heavens and curse the few who dare disagree.
The less fortunate masa in effect delude themselves, believing that he not only sounds but also looks – in rugged polo or t-shirt and denims – like them.
What sets Duterte apart from his predecessors is his apparent drive against illegal drug lords and pushers, aimed at crushing the local drug cartels in three to six months.
Last week, however, he begged for another three to six months due to the gargantuan expansion of the illegal drug trade in the barangays.
That Duterte appears to be succeeding in his war against drug lords is evident in the scarcity of shabu today. Though it is not possible to quantify the volume of methamphetamine or shabu still in circulation, such scarcity is implied in its sudden price rise from P1,300 to P25,000 per gram.
Still, how could we be so sure of “good riddance”? The higher the price, the more willing the sellers risk their own lives. Life being short, they philosophize, why not make the most of it? The drug addicts out there would pounce at first opportunity to sniff again, even if that meant making money first by committing other crimes — theft, robbery or kidnapping for ransom.
Serving time in the New Bilibid Prison has not ended the happy days of big-time drug dealers who have what it takes to bribe prison authorities. By his own admission before the Senate Ethics Committee, prisoner Herbert Colanggo had gone only as far as grade six – short of saying he could not have enriched himself by legal means.
Where there are users, pushers would also be there for quick cash. According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), of the three million illegal drug users, 50 percent sniff shabu. If the government has to succeed in weaning them off the vice, it has to rehabilitate them, which is no easy task.
According to our friend Francis, a rehabilitated shabu user, addiction could be so strong that cravers could no longer be persuaded to abandon the vice – not even when lectured that this white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder, can produce lasting damage to the brain and body organs, or cause sudden death. What counts to them is the “high” they experience.
Unfortunately, Duterte’s mailed-fist policy against drug pushers – encouraging the police to “kill rather than be killed” – has depopularized the President to human rights advocates here and abroad. It is estimated that in his first three months in office, 3,000 drug war-related killings have transpired. What if those killed by the police, not having undergone due process, were innocent?
Due to his popularity, President Duterte has successfully fended off public censure over extra-judicial killings. In fact, it’s not he but former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima who is on the chopping board for allegedly receiving millions of pesos from drug lords.
Duterte’s way is not really original. It’s a duplication of the “Mexico way.” One recalls that when then newly-elected Mexican president Felipe Calderon assumed office on Dec. 11, 2006, he declared violent war on drugs. When he left the presidency six years later, however, around 70,000 Mexicans – whether drug traffickers, army or police – had lost their lives. And yet today, President Enrique Peña Nieto is saddled with more Mexican drug cartels to fight. One of them is the Sinaloa cartel, believed to be the Philippines’ biggest source of imported illegal drugs./PN
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