President cites his predecessor for not knowing or attempting to know the scale of the drug menace

Was former President Aquino remiss in his job in addressing the drug problem during his six-year term?

As the government struggles to resolve the severe and widespread drug problem, President Rodrigo Duterte said his predecessor “did not know or never attempted to know” the gravity of the menace during his term.

This was the reason, Duterte claimed, behind the lack of funds needed for the rehabilitation of drug dependents this year.

“My countrymen, remember that I entered the presidency midterm. And so I am now operating on a budget that was prepared the other year by President Aquino,” the President said during a visit to the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Manila.

“Half of the budget is gone. Maybe he did not realize the gravity of the situation because he simply did not know or never attempted to know how… how much was the scale, the dimension of three million,” Duterte said.

The president issued the statement after hitting back at the “stupidity” of some foreign governments criticizing him for not focusing on setting up more drug rehabilitation facilities. Duterte said his critics’ observation was “correct if you have the money.”

In his speech, the president said the drug operations have become a P215-billion annual industry in a country with more three million hooked on illegal drugs.

The president blamed the involvement of thousands of government officials as to why the country’s “serious” drug problem grew worse.

He said his drug list—including 6,000 policemen, 3,000 barangay captains, 17 mayors, two or three governors and two congressmen—is still being revalidated by authorities. “It is continuing because even those guys who are sworn to protect public interest and because it is really very easy money almost all of them went to it.”

Duterte implicated anew Senator Leila de Lima for “allowing the drug industry to take place.” He said the portals of the national government have been opened to the “creeping influence of drug.”

“You, yourselves, you are the agents, some of the agents of this bureau testified against her. Most of them were credible and I don’t know them actually,” he said. “So there’s no sense in saying that I have a part of it. You know that.”

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Genalyn Kabiling

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