Inevitable and indubitable conclusion

There is something really fishy in the shipment of P11 billion worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) from China. Under RA 9526, the importation, manufacture, sale or distribution and use of this kind of drug are illegal, prohibited and punishable with heavy penalty of imprisonment and even death. And since this is an importation from China it is the Bureau of Customs (BOC) which is primarily tasked with preventing and intercepting their shipment into our country. How such a huge shipment could have easily slipped past the BOC is really quite intriguing. It has raised a lot of speculations that appear to be plausible and possible.

These speculations arise from some moves and statements coming not only from the BOC but also from other people in this administration including Duterte himself. They have really raised a lot of eyebrows and led people to believe and conclude that even the President himself, who is pictured and projected as the leader of the campaign against these prohibited drugs, seems to be involved. Coming right away into the peoples’ mind is his initial reaction when information about this shipment and how it slipped past Customs was first exposed by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Chief Aquino.  Duterte was even the first one who immediately declared that no shabu could have been concealed in the magnetic lifters that slipped through Customs. He sided with BOC Chief Lapena against PDEA Chief Aquino in their word war regarding such shipment.

Then, when the Senate Blue Ribbon committee investigated these allegations and confirmed that such huge amount of shabu have indeed been concealed in the four magnetic lifters to be able to slip through said office, people became more intrigued about Duterte’s reaction. During the Senate hearing, Customs Deputy Collector Lourdes Mangaoang and BOC former Intelligence Officer Jimmy Guban testified that said shipments have really slipped past BOC despite Lapena’s claim to the contrary. Reacting to this exposure and confirmation of the two Customs officials, Duterte surprisingly and unexpectedly ordered the arrest of Guban for supposed “extortion” (“he is only asking for money”). He ordered PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde to arrest Guban. And when Albayalde asked on “what ground”, Duterte merely replied and told Albayalde to“bring him to the NBI.”

On the other hand, when BOC Chief Isidro Lapena changed his tune and recanted his previous statement that no such shipment entered the country last August, Duterte did not order his investigation and possible prosecution for negligence, or much more so for being involved in   shabu smuggling. Instead, he even promoted him into a Cabinet position as head of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). People became even more curious when Duterte also cleared former BOC Chief Nicanor Faeldon. This move aroused a lot of suspicion because the first shipment of shabu worth about P6.5 billion slipped through Customs when Faeldon was the Chief.  Duterte peremptorily declared that Lapena and Faeldon were just victims of the corrupt system in the Bureau of Customs.

Obviously, Duterte disregarded the principle of “command responsibility” here. In fact, under this principle, Lapena and Faeldon should not have been cleared and declared as victims of the corrupt system but should have been investigated and charged if warranted. To be sure, Duterte himself could be held responsible pursuant to this well entrenched principle in our democratic system of government. What he did here has made a mockery of said principle and has once more manifested his dangerous tendency to impose martial law or the one-man rule. Such tendency becomes even more manifest when he placed the Bureau of Customs under military control which is contrary to the Constitutional policy of “civilian supremacy over the military.”

But over and above all these ominous signs and dangers, there is one glaring and more damaging implications on Duterte’s attitude and reactions to these illegal and anomalous shipments of prohibited drugs. First of all, it would show that his war on drugs is merely for show rather than for real. Indeed, even as he has openly identified Peter Lim as a “drug lord,” the latter has not been arrested and charged up to now. In fact he has even been received and feted in Malacanang one time with a photograph of the Presidential Seal at the background. All these gestures are really warning signs to the police and military to lay off or go easy on Lim and other notorious drug lords. They also prove that this “war on drugs” is mainly directed against the poor and helpless victims of drugs who fall prey to those who are dealing and distributing or dealing with them. Many of them have even been killed in the “Oplan Tokhang” launched by Duterte.

However, the more dangerous and ominous implications of Duterte’ actions and reactions to the P11 billion illegal shipment of shabu is the people’s growing belief that he is trying to defend and protect said illegal shipment by condemning and trying to prosecute Customs officers Mangaoang and Guban rather than praising and rewarding them for exposing the illegal shipment which is exactly the opposite of his reactions to protect and defend the very Chiefs of BOC who were apparently responsible for illegal entry of the huge amount of shabu into our country. Duterte’s reactions here led people to trace the footprints of those who really imported said shabu. And considering some news items in the past where the names of importers even include relatives of Duterte, people cannot help but conclude that the footprints lead right at the doorsteps of Malacanang.

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