Ruffy Magbanua“In criminal law legislation, our priority is the security and well-being of law-abiding citizens rather that the rights of the criminal to be protected from incriminating evidence.” -Lee Kuan Yew
THE ongoing vendetta on the illegal drug trade in the country can be best described as leveling off, literally, the playing field of who will survive: the good or the evil?
The numbers killed keep rising every day and I there is no stopping to it, down to the last man standing done in lightning raids, executed ranger style and in staccato fashion.
The strike and awe could be fatal to those who fight back as police operatives, reportedly high on morale and spirit, are doing gung ho in the fight against the country’s No. 1 societal menace: illegal drugs.
No one is spared, not even those within the police ranks, regardless of how many stars “drug suspects” are wearing. As long as their names are in the “list,” then it’s a do or die thing.
The campaign is relentless indeed. Never in the minds of the “untouchables” in the drug trade, including people in high places, that they thought that one day, they will face the consequence--public humiliation, in jail, or settle permanently six feet below the ground.
What they got initially was sting ray-like bites of public warnings from President Rody Duterte who vowed to make real his threat to punish drug lords, coddlers, pushers and users within three to six months.
The ordinary drug users and peddlers heeded the President’s call by volunteering en masse but the generals in the shabu industry waited for their names to be called in public and got what they wanted--embarrassment like no other!
Going by the stats of drug pushers and addicts giving themselves up, one can only wonder in disbelief what the previous administration did to address the problem on illegal drugs in the country.
Aquino has clearly failed to cut or at the very least, curb the business of illegal drugs in almost all strata of the Philippine society--from top to bottom, vice versa.
The former President, now facing multiple corruption cases, found a defender in Leila de Lima, former justice secretary and now senator from the yellow party.
With Senators Antonio Trillanes and Kiko Pangilinan backing her up, de Lima, a newcomer in the Senate, had the gall to declare foul the spate of killings in the war against illegal drugs, calling for a Senate inquiry. That was her opening opposition salvo in the halls of Congress.
Gee whiz, look who’s talking? De Lima took the helm in running the nation’s central penitentiary, but wonder of wonders, the cooking of shabu in the prisons proliferated during her stint as justice secretary.
Complete with a marketing arm, the shabu factory inside the Bilibid thrived openly, operating like a cargo mover, shipping out the illegal goods freely under the watchful eyes of the prison guards.
One could only utter in disbelief as high-value inmates boast their grip over authorities, some of them lived in style inside prison cells turned five-star, fully furnished living rooms with matching music instruments and gadgets.
The time for reckoning has come to the fore following the announcement of high-level Chinese triad involved in the multibillion-peso illegal drug operations in the country.
Malacanang earlier announced that the triad involved in illegal drugs trade were two Chinese drug lords, a police general coddling them, and another local drug dealer who has made a killing in the sale of shabu in the country.
The game plan to stop illegal drugs and criminality in the country is now in full throttle, a daunting task that needs the political will of our leaders to do it fast, relentless and sustained.
In the coming days, more names are expected to surface. This time, the list would come from the lower echelons of the so-called triad with local officials and more PNP personnel leading the pack of police target.
Indeed, there never was anything great achieved without danger.
E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com
