I cannot believe it! If all these allegations against Senator Leila de Lima are true, she should resign. Better yet, she should head straight to jail. How can the former Secretary of the Department of Justice get away with all of what is said about her? No, I am not talking about her private life. Susmariosep!
Directly under the DOJ is the Board of Pardons and Parole. Other agencies attached to it are the: Bureau of Corrections, Bureau of Immigration, Land Registration Authority, National Bureau of Investigation, Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, Office of the Solicitor General, Parole and Probation Administration, Presidential Commission on Good Government and the Public Attorney’s Office. The question is: What does a President do when he discovers major anomalies and betrayal made by a former cabinet secretary? He punishes her. He makes her accountable for anything under her watch. And I think this is what Duterte is doing now.
The issue in this whole scandal is Duterte’s determination to stop the Philippines from being a narco-state. Ninety-three percent of our barangays have been penetrated by illegal drugs hurting six million of our youth. There are three million pushers who have been cuddled and protected by generals, congress and LGUs. If it is true that De Lima has cuddled drug lords during her watch as the DOJ Secretary then Duterte’s fight is necessary. It is imperative.
It is not even inconceivable for him to blame the past administration (who left the country in jeopardy and in limbo) and also hold them accountable for this alleged crime. He blames the Aquino administration for its failure to curb the drug menace in the country saying, “Six years have passed and nothing happened.”
United Nations 2012 World Drug Report stated that the Philippines has the highest rate of ‘shabu’ use in East Asia. Our geographic location has made us a major hub for the drug in Southeast Asia. This explains why there have been a lot of incidents of Filipinos getting arrested in other countries for transporting or selling ‘shabu.’
It is said that ‘shabu’ is brought into the country from Japan, China, and Korea. But it is also grown domestically in “meth labs.” In 2013, the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency confirmed reports that the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel had started operations in the country.
About nine Chinese drug cartels are involved on most illegal drug trade in the Philippines. According to the US State Department report on international drugs, syndicates that organize and finance the trafficking of ‘shabu’ in the country are mostly ethnic Chinese. As a matter of fact, President Rodrigo Duterte has named the members of a large Chinese triad group in an interview with PTV-4 last July 7. The members of the triad group included Chinese drug lords under the protection of Marcelo Garbo Jr., one of the Philippine National Police generals named by Duterte on July 5.
In the past years, the rise in the number of drug users in the country is alarming. In 2014, PDEA statistics showed 40 percent of minors arrested for drug possession. Drug syndicates use children as drug pushers. Children arrested are brought to the DSWD in compliance to RA No. 9344 (Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006). What happens there is beyond me. All I know is that after a few weeks the same children are back on the streets.
Mr. President just do your job! Don’t listen to all these bozos. We need to protect the innocent and punish the criminals. As you said, “It is not just a problem but a crisis for the country. It is not only epidemic but pandemic.” All those nincompoops, out there to destroy you are either naïve, dumb or funded by the bad guys. They are all scared of your actions because they know they can be next in line.
As the Malacañang spokesperson said: “The President is taking the position of parens patriae as parent of the nation. He is calling attention to clear the present danger of drugs. It’s his moral obligation to make sure the public is properly warned of the drug menace.” Continue your unwavering fight against drugs Mr. President. You are the only President who has come out strong and courageous with an iron fist to save our people, to save this country from oblivion.
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My dearest aunt, Mercy Soliven-David, younger sister of my late father Maximo V. Soliven passed away last Thursday after a long fight with cancer. My father would always talk about her life in Basilan. She moved to Basilan from Manila with her family in the late sixties but returned to Manila when the Moro uprising began in the late seventies.
In one of my dad’s columns, he wrote, “When my late brother-in-law Mariano David and my sister Mercy still had their large rubber and copra plantation in Galayan, Maluso, Basilan, Taosug raids were frequent in their area. After “Marno” died of heart trouble, the Department of Agrarian Reform stole the plantation away from my widowed sister Mercy and “gifted” it to scores of Muslims who had never even worked on the farm (all her employees had been Christians).
In the wilder era of raiders coming all the way from Sulu, my sister had to teach her children, even her youngest, a one-year old, the “silence game,” meaning that when they hid in the bushes as far away as possible from the creek (from which the Taosug raiders came by boat), once she announced to the kids “silence game, children!” They would all cover their mouths and keep totally quiet, lest the heavily-armed raiders notice their place of concealment.”
It has always been Tita Mercy’s dream to see her beloved Basilan again. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Chartered City of Basilan was the fourth biggest city in the country in terms of land area, and used to be called a first class city. It exported copra, coconut oil, rubber and lumber.
The Moro uprising led by the MNLF under Nur Misuari in 1971 affected Basilan’s economy. This was aggravated by the declaration of martial law. Politics came into play.
The Yakan uplanders fought with the Tausug lowlanders and their allies. This Yakan-Tausug battles throughout the 1980s ended in the burning of Isabela City’s downtown market in 1987. Basilan gained a bad reputation as the Philippines’ “Wild, Wild West”. Since then, Basilan became a no man’s land and the rest of the region was never the same again.
Tita Mercy left her heart in Basilan. Up until her death, she never had the chance to realize her dream of returning to the beautiful land she once fell in love with. I hope and pray that one day we will see that dawn of a new day in the many areas of Mindanao and as Tita Mercy looks down from heaven she will be happy to see what has become of it. May you rest in peace dear angel of poetry, don’t forget to hug my Papa Max really tight and tell him how much he is missed down here.
Each mourned, beloved one, though laid within the sod, shall wait, till then, each one shall have, reunion under God. For those whom we have parted with, for those whom we no longer see, each holy soul, shall near, each day, a meeting in eternity! – Max Soliven