|
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Maxey: Sending pushers into rigor mortis
By Ram Maxey
Trading in drugs is so lucrative that those who deal in it seem prepared to throw all caution to the four winds and even face the prospect of getting killed, summary or otherwise in the process. And in Davao City, that's how they usually end up: in rigor mortis.
DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte let the proverbial cat out of the bag when he declared during his television program "Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa" last Sunday that he had organized what he called a "special project" which led to the slaying of SPO2 William Boiser by still unidentified gunmen some weeks back.
According to him, four other Davao City policemen may yet end up as targets of such special projects.
Duterte said Boiser, who had been reassigned to Davao Oriental, had gone AWOL (absent without leave) and returned to Davao City to engage in the lucrative illegal drugs trade, thus incurring the ire of the mayor who has embarked on a no-nonsense, mailed-fist crusade against drug trafficking and other crimes against society.
Perhaps it's no coincidence then that since the start of his campaign dead bodies of alleged criminals, many of them drug pushers/dealers, have cropped up here, there and everywhere in the downtown and suburbs, prompting a hue and cry from human rights advocates (and obvious Duterte-haters) over what they perceive as outright summary executions in violation of that much-battered phrase: "due process".
But the fight against the proliferation of illegal drugs anywhere in the world, not only in Davao City, has become a difficult and lonely fight.
Trading in drugs is so lucrative that those who deal in it seem prepared to throw all caution to the four winds and even face the prospect of getting killed, summary or otherwise in the process. And in Davao City, that's how they usually end up: in rigor mortis.
Whatever the human rightists say, unless drug addiction and trafficking are dealt with a strong hand, society will be the loser in the course of time -- if it is not losing already.
The dread of every parent is seeing their sons and daughters falling victims to this insidious vice and ruining their lives forever. The mayor's campaign against the proliferation of illegal drugs in the city deserves not only the sympathy of the general public but its active support.
The next drug pusher/dealer in this city who ends up in rigor mortis is one less dreg of society to deal with. There are so many of them, it's scary already.
(June 18, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
