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Erick San Juan

IS there no one minding the store? This is the general perception now being felt by the ordinary Juan dela Cruz who is once part of the diminishing middle class. Why is this so?

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There seems to be an ongoing demolition job to topple the present administration. Obviously, since Day 1, one issue after another was being thrown at the President’s men but of course the target is the President himself.

The war on drugs and its so-called casualties is the favorite among all the other campaign promises that were mentioned before his entry to the Palace.

The opposition from some sectors were very quick to throw criticisms from EJKs (extra-judicial killings) to alleged police payola to meet certain quotas in the killing spree of supposed drug addicts and pushers from the lower class of our society. But the perennial problem remains – where are the big fishes in this war on drugs? A selective one, so they say.

In DU30’s circle of friends when he was still a local politician from Davao, they are still around and some sectors are not happy with this at all. How can the Duterte administration succeed in its war on drugs and corruption at that when some people in his loop of friends are rumored to be involved in such alleged shady activities? Just asking.

So can we rightfully say that the citizenry is right to criticize that this is just a “big show” for the real big people behind are still free and are in the government, some elected, some appointed.

We are doing our part to help this administration work even if we are not sometimes satisfied with some of the people around PRRD who are actually doing things that are quite damaging to the image of the president and his administration.

To compound the problem, the much-praised people in the economic team of the government, no thanks to their PR operators, are really serious to make the populace suffer even more. The comprehensive tax reform bill passed in the House of Representatives (the ball is now in the Senate) is another round of hardships for the Filipino people.

On top of these are the already approved increases in the prices of water, electricity and petroleum products. We can’t help but ask, where is the promise of a better life from the change that was supposed to be felt in the first year of the current leadership?

According to former Interior Secretary Raffy Alunan, foreign investors are leaving, including huge hot money coming out and cancellation of contracts for call centers despite the glowing propaganda. The ills of society and government are deeply entrenched as ever. The “NPA,” not the left but the non-performers and rotten, are still in the government service. Others are barnacles that remain constant, unmoving and untouched. Raffy is correct, reason so many Duterte supporters are demoralized. One example is the ouster of former SBMA chairman Martin Diño without a formal advance notification and replaced by Atty. Wilma Eisma, who’s known as a former executive officer of Mar Roxas at DOTC and also close to former Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa.

We respect and adhere to PRRD’s plans for this country but if he will not check the people around him who are now in the process of gradually destroying his goals for a better Philippines, we will all go down with him and this could create chaos as some perceive.

With the almost done war in Marawi City that is now in its more than four months of bloody encounter, what went wrong? Again some fake news and more hyperbole are creating more boo-boos and some may wonder are there really people deliberately pulling down the administration to the pits?

Now with the latest statement on the possible of drug transshipment of illegal drugs through the country to the United States courtesy of the 14K and the Chinese Bamboo Triad, the designed scenario is programmed to drag us all to the dog. The president should review his information about the Chinese Triad controlling even the 14k of Hongkong and the defunct Bamboo gang of Taiwan. The Triad in the Philippines has basically linked in all walks of life, the reason they survive any transition of administration. A top intelligence officer, a Chinese Triad expert, told me once that the covert China economy includes all money-making ventures. It is inclusive, everything that can deliver money to China is part of their economic strategy.

They are now even warning us not to blame China in the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu that slipped through our Bureau of Customs (Daily Tribune, Sept.27, 2017). During our meeting with the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations at Romulo’s Restaurant with several VIPs from China as guests, I thanked China for tipping off the shipment. But I know for a fact that China is very strict on the smuggling of drugs that even the father-in-law of drug lord and Taiwan fugitive Richard Chen, a former China’s custom official, was killed due to corruption. How come the huge volume of shabu was released from China and transported to the Philippines. The untold story about the shipment will be exposed soon.

Beware!

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