President Rodrigo Duterte is hell bent in doing everything within his power to get the job done in eradicating the serious illegal drug problem in the Philippines.
Everybody must have been jolted by Duterte’s bold decision to name the five police generals allegedly involved in illegal drug trade in the country.
This is a good sign that Duterte is really determined in implementing drastic changes in the country as far as peace and order is concerned.
Named as either drug lords or protectors of drug lords in their respective turfs were Police Generals Joel Pagdilao, Edgardo Tinio Bernardo Diaz, Marcelo Garbo and Vicente Loot.
As expected, the police generals denied having anything to do with illegal drugs. They also denied coddling suspected drug lords in their respective areas.
President Digong should order his investigators to look into the bank accounts of these generals to find out if they were able to accumulate huge amounts of money from the illegal drugs business.
Garbo and Loot have retired from the police service. Loot is now a town mayor in Cebu. Generals Tinio and Diaz have been identified as being close to losing presidential candidate Mar Roxas. They were seen by the media having a conference with Roxas shortly before they May 9 elections at the Novitel hotel in Quezon City.
Sources were saying that had Roxas won the presidency, Tinio would have been his choice to be his PNP chief. Good thing Roxas lost.
President “Digong” must have in his possession a great deal of evidence to sort through, or else he would not have named or shamed in public the five police generals. He now has gotten the attention of the people regarding his seriousness in eradicating criminality and the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country as he had promised throughout his presidential campaign in May.
The public is now eagerly awaiting his announcement in naming three provincial governors and 32 city and town mayors reportedly involved in illegal drugs. These local officials, he was told by his reliable informants, were either drug users or drug lords or were protecting drug syndicates in their respective areas.
TRIAD CONNECTION. President Rodrigo R. Duterte shows a copy of a diagram showing the connection of high level drug syndicates operating in the country during a press conference at Malacañang on July 7, 2016.(MNS photo)
I expect President Digong to name these erring local officials within the next few weeks as he embark on a more aggressive campaign against drug syndicates operating almost in all parts of the Philippines.
President Digong should also look into the possible involvement of two senators rumored to have strong ties with big time drug lords. He should also look into the possible involvement of movie personalities in the illegal drugs business since most of them are drug users.
There is no doubt that President Digong knows what he is doing since he is a lawyer and was once a government prosecutor before he became mayor of Davao City.
Although I know one of these days that he will start implementing draconian measures against the proliferation of drugs as well as in going after big time drug lords, I hope President Digong’s all out campaign against criminality will be conducted within the bounds of law.
However, I still see an uphill battle the Duterte administration will face in its effort to put behind bars all these drug lords and erring government and polio ex officials involved in illegal drugs. It is no secret that the drug business in the country has not only corrupted government officials but the judiciary ax well.
President Digong should also start investigating fiscal and judges suspected of coddling drug lords in their areas. As a warning to other police officers, President Digong ordered PNP Chief De la Rosa to immediately relieve the three active PNP generals and conduct further investigation to strengthen the criminal case against the erring police officials.
The DILG as well as the National Police Commission will also conduct separate probe on the five police generals. These erring police generals, once convicted if found guilty, will be forfeiting their retirement benefits and other perks entitled to a police general.
This should serve as a warning to other government officials and police officers who have been in cahoots with drug lords for a number of years.
Duterte’s campaign against drug syndicates will be a major factor in eradicating, if not minimizing criminality in the country.