Legaspi: Philippine drug industry

THERE was a rich tourist, who contracted the services of a famous artist to make a large sketch of an eagle. However, the very next day, he immediately went back to his country for an urgent issue in his business and forgot about the artist. Three years later, the man went back to the place and remembered the artist. He went back and asked for the artwork. The artist remembered and took out his paper and immediately made a sketch of the eagle in a matter of ten minutes. The rich man was shocked that the artist did the artwork in a matter of minutes. The rich man said, “I did not expect you to just do this very expensive artwork in minutes, this will make this work cheap.” The artist told the man to go with him to the next room where he presented hundreds of rolled papers and then told the man, “look at those rolled-papers, they are sketches of the eagle you wanted. I had practiced doing it for the past three years to master every detail of the eagle you wanted.”

I would like to welcome Vice President Leni Robredo to the world of the Dangerous Drugs. The VP is now the head of the task force that will destroy the drug industry in the country. I pray for the success of her program of saving the future from the clutches of the dreaded menace that can swiftly destroy the minds of the young. I am hopeful of a positive outcome with VP Robredo.

The very first thing in the platform of President Digong was really to eradicate drugs in the country by all means familiar or unfamiliar to him. He promised that if this is not met, he will resign and give the post to one who could run the show. It has been three SONAs already but the drug menace is still abundant in the peripheries of the country. In fairness to Digong, he has done his promise. He has at least sowed fear and minimized the menace in Luzon but it continued in other parts of the country. Many crackdowns had been uncovered and many crooks in his administration had been exposed but he has not exterminated the whole pack. If I am correct my comical mind tells me that he is the first president to seriously focus on the issue.

But, why do we have the dangerous drug trade? This is not just a local issue. If one would look at the international scene, the menace are in South America, rich fertile African lands, and Asia. These are the food bowl of the world. These are the beautiful and fertile countries of the world. Europe and North America do not have this advantage. They are productive only for six months in a year while the remaining months make their lands infertile and cold. They need the other continents to supply their need for food. If the population of the third world countries competes with them, they will end up in famine. With this premise, I can conclude that a sinister plan has been crafted to reduce the population and produce more goods for them.

Over the past decades, we have been offered a lot of alternatives to cut down our population in the Philippines. They branded us already as rabbits in terms of propagation. A few decades ago, the United Nations funded a population control program that would curtail the booming population in Asia. They were met with opposition. So, they sought the help of the government to implement the contraceptive mentality among their people but this was short-lived for the program was not widely accepted.

The next program was the employment of the Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC) which made the third world countries believe that their real enemies are within their ranks and not from foreign terror groups. Insurgency was capitalized for the government to eradicate its people. But later, this was discovered that it was just a ploy to reduce the population.

I am fearful that the drug trade is the recent strategy of the imperialists for the third world. This has activated governments to kill their people in the name of the drug war. The Philippines had already eradicated a lot and now we need more to eradicate to balance our products with the needs of the developed countries.

So, I hope we wake up and see the real score in this drug war menace.

St. Ezekiel Moreno, pray for us.