Illegal drugs kill, so can Duterte

THERE are readers who question columnist Ramon Tulfo over his open endorsement of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s bid for president in next year’s national election. That was all to be expected.

Tulfo is quite open about his closeness to the hard-hitting city executive. The two are more than just friends, they are like brothers.

I happen to know Duterte myself, although not as much as Tulfo does.

Now, if I had not been clear about it, let it be stated here that I am myself batting—all out—for Duterte to be the next President of the Philippines.

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Why? I happen to have sweet, innocent grandchildren, all six of them, who are daily exposed to the deathly drug menace gripping the country, Metro Manila as a whole, our neighborhood in Mandaluyong City and nearby localities in particular.

I am batting for Duterte to be President because he appears the only one among the presidential aspirants who can solve the dreadful drug menace in the country.

Maybe this need not be told, but I find it truly disgusting how our charismatic, hardworking unmarried President Aquino treats the deeply embedded problem of drug addiction in the Philippines as though he has no idea what this was all about.

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Now, please allow me to reprint this item (courtesy of the trusted Manila-based FREE BASTE NEWS): “In Cotabato City, the Moro Islamic  Liberation Front (MILF) has directed its field commanders to help wage war on illegal drugs, especially methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu,” in Maguindanao and areas covered by the government and the MILF ceasefire agreement. The MILF central committee has also put up antidrug campaign posters around Maguindanao.”

In the same item (provided by trader Sebastian Chua), it was noted that the New People’s Army (NPA) is similarly involved in a war against illegal drugs, noting the “NPA has sent letters to drug suspects in Pantukan and other areas telling them to report to the NPA camp in the province.”

By the way, my friend Mon Tulfo had a raw encounter with the national drug problem after a daughter of his was identified among the victims of drug addiction in  College of St. Benilde.

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I see and encounter drug addiction victims day in and day out, and the number of these so-called “walking dead” multiply rapidly as shabu continues to come in cheaper and more widespread lately.

Out in Chinatown, I talked to a friend in my favorite fresh lumpia parlor on Friday who quipped Duterte could lose in the election because there are now countless drug addicts who would surely vote against him.

In fact, the number of these lost, hopeless souls has gone out of hand that there has come one desperate suggestion to have cyanide-laced shabu circulated in the underground.

Said Duterte: “I am against illegal drugs … I might kill someone because of it.”

One drug suspect was killed in Davao City recently,  the day after Duterte issued a 48-hour ultimatum for pushers to leave town.

Meanwhile, unlike the MILF and the NPA, President Aquino has refused to “marry” the rampaging  drug problem, thus leading pundits to wonder cryptically if he had himself been widowed by the mindless craze.