By Democrito C. Barcenas
BEFORE the 2016 elections, then presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte promised a gullible electorate: “I will solve the problems of drugs, crimes and corruption in three to six months.”
After more than four years in office, Duterte must now candidly report to the nation what happened to his promises, especially on the drug problem.
We are at a loss on what happened to the shabu worth billions of pesos found in magnetic lifters in the Customs several months ago. Nobody was prosecuted and nobody went to jail. Nobody knows what happened to the confiscated shabu.
It is inconceivable that the proliferation of drugs is without the knowledge and connivance of some drug enforcement authorities. The President himself, in a moment of frustration and exasperation, stated that 40 percent of the police are rotten.
It is no wonder that almost every week suspects have been arrested in possession of illegal drugs worth millions of pesos. Recently, the police in Sibulan, Negros Oriental seized shabu worth P13.77 million. Right here in Cebu City, the police last Sept. 20 confiscated from three suspects in Barangay Guadalupe shabu worth P61.3 million.
Despite the extra-judicial killings of more than 20,000 suspects since the start of Duterte’s bloody drug war which is actually a war against the poor, this war has become unwinnable. It seems that Malacañang has become a moral wasteland of broken promises and human rights violations.