CALL me a Dutertard — I don’t care. Just like I don’t care about how some self-righteous journalist blocked me just because I considered Digong a friend when Digong was president.
My choice of friends is my own. If you don’t like me because of my friends, then thank you. Anak ka man ng Diyos, but I’m not obliged to befriend you.
Still, I can’t help but bristle every single time those leftists cry for yet another slain drug runner and addict. Poor Kian — him, who never really had second thoughts about handing out illegal drugs in his neighborhood. Them, who cry foul about red-tagging and yet just as quickly proudly pose beside rebels. *Haaay*.
The jail service I initiated in April 2022 is now three years old. The livelihood project isn’t doing well. Fewer and fewer are buying crocheted products, and yes, they are non-essentials, as Covid lingo goes. But the women are.
And that’s why I hate the left for trying to paint a picture of helpless addicts and pushers.
They are not. And the big-time pushers are not above killing a minion or ten minions. It’s obvious someone is lying with a hidden agenda when they consistently stand to defend those within the illegal drug trade, crying tears for the helpless runners. *Samok!*
Three years visiting the jail, and yet, I am always taken by surprise when a person deprived of liberty (PDL) will say she’s in jail because of murder, homicide, estafa, concubinage, or being an NPA. Why? Because just about everyone we are given the honor to pranic heal is there because of drugs: using, selling, *palit-ulo*, *nadamay ng partner*, just being in the wrong place.
"Using or pushing?" I asked a PDL.
"Parehas."
"Shabu?"
"Yes, maam. Pero katong bata pa 'ko, marijuana gamit ko." She's now 18 and in jail.
For both male and female jails, drug cases account for a whopping 90%. And yet, the left wants us to believe the problem doesn’t exist and that the real problem is human rights violations.
They want us to address the drug problem with smiles and tender hearts... and so we see the likes of Kerwin Espinosa laughing in our faces on social media.
We have a real problem, and it’s now spiraling out of control, so let’s make sure that no other drug trade coddler will be in a position to twist reality and prevent authorities from addressing the illegal drug problem with an iron will.
Do not ever think that addicts, pushers, and traders will soften up just because they have human rights defenders embracing them. They will fight and kill and get more hooked because that’s how it’s played. Let us not be blind to this reality. Let us not be blind to the fact that if we take out all the addicts, pushers, users, traders, *napalitan ng ulo*, and *nadamay*, our jails will be near-empty.
The problem is real. Remember this on May 12 as we pray for deliverance for the Filipino people.
-o0o-
* Stella, former editor-in-chief of SunStar Davao, is a Pranic Healing educator and an Arhatic Yoga practitioner. Email: saestremera@gmail.com, fb: /saestremera, IG: @saestremera