Tag: Illegal Drugs

Go’s statements betray reservations about Robredo’s drug czar role

Published by Ellen on November 11, 2019

If Vice President Leni Robredo succeeds in dismantling the illegal drugs network and reducing the menace without the killings that have characterized President Duterte’s failed drug war, it would be a slap on Duterte’s much vaunted iron hand strategy.

Vice President Leni Robredo holds press conference with ICAD co-chair PDEA chief Aaron Aquino

Sen. Bong Go’s statements betray this concern even as he expressed “full support”for her as c-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) together with the head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

In his press release after his visit to Leyte to witness the groundbreaking ceremony of housing projects for typhoon Yolanda victims in Tanauan and to give aid to fire victims in Tacloban Nov 8, Go took exception to Robredo’s statement about no killing of innocent lives in the drug war.

Profiles of courage: Lourdes Mangaoang and Aaron Aquino

Published by Ellen on October 23, 2018

It takes courage not to toe the President’s line.

That’s why it’s awe-inspiring listening to Atty. Lourdes Mangaoang, former Customs X-ray Inspection Project (XIP) chief, in insisting her expert opinion about the magnetic lifters that were alleged to have been used to smuggle illegal drugs last July estimated to be worth P6.8 billion.

Atty. Lourdes V. Mangaoang interview in DZBB. Screengrab from DZBB video.

Same with Director General Aaron Aquino of the Philippine drug enforcement agency who has not wavered in the findings of the agency that the magnetic lifters that passed through the Bureau of Customs contained shabu which is now flooding the streets of the country destroying more lives.

Founded on false hopes, sustained by more falsehood

Published by Ellen on October 16, 2017

Fake news. We have that in abundance direct from the President himself.

Now we have Fake Charge.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio minced no words in his 39-page dissenting opinion to the majority decision (9-6) upholding the warrant of arrest on Sen. Leila de Lima issued by the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court early this year on the charge that she engaged in illegal drug trading while she was secretary of justice.

“Based on the Information itself, the accusation of illegal trade of drugs against petitioner is blatantly a pure invention. This Court, the last bulwark of democracy and liberty in the land, should never countenance such a fake charge. To allow the continued detention of petitioner under this Information is one of the grossest injustices ever perpetrated in recent memory in full view of the Filipino nation and the entire world,” Carpio said.

The Charlie Tan- Paolo Duterte connection

Published by Ellen on August 28, 2017

Once again, we are seeing proof of the saying that truth will find its way out, however one tries to block it.

We are referring to the Paolo Duterte- Charlie Tan drug connection.

Paolo is the son of President Duterte and is the vice mayor of Davao City. Charlie Tan, according to news reports, is a Taiwanese businessman who does a lot of business in Davao.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s privilege speech last Wednesday on the corruption at the Bureau of Customs was indeed explosive. As Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano said, Lacson’s speech “has exposed more actionable information regarding corruption in BOC compared to Sen. Richard Gordon’s endless hours of monologue and one-man show hearings.”

Sen. Ping Lacson delivering his expose of corruption in the Bureau of Customs. Photo from pinglacson.net

Lethal mix: small mind and great power

Published by Ellen on February 8, 2017

President Duterte shows a book about anomalies in the Catholic church as he slams CBCP pastoral letter at convention in Davao city, Feb. 2. Malacanang photo by Rene Lumawag.

President Duterte’s reaction to the Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on the killings related to his campaign against prohibited drugs read in all Catholic churches last Sunday shows the danger when small minds are given so much power.

“Kayong mg Katoliko, kung naniniwala kayo sa mga pari pati obispo doon kayo. Kung gusto nyo mapunta ng langit, doon kayo. Ngayon, kung gusto nang matapos ang droga pero magpunta ako sa impyerno, sumabay kayo sa akin (You Catholics, if you believe in priests and bishops, go with them. If you want to go to heaven, go there. Now, if you want to end illegal drugs join me in hell),” he ranted in a press briefing in Cagayan de Oro Sunday evening.

It’s doubtful if he even read and tried to understand the full letter. The bishops acknowledge the problem of the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country and that’s in the first paragraph: “This traffic in illegal drugs needs to be stopped and overcome. But the solution does not lie in the killing of suspected drug users and pushers.”

A scary scenario: A drug-tainted police officer has a protector in Malacanang?

Published by Ellen on December 1, 2016

Update: Duterte admits ordering Marcos re-instatement
http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/02/16/duterte-admits-ordering-marcos-reinstatement

Police Supt. Marvin Marcos. Photo from Philstar.

If Police Supt. Marvin Marcos has long been identified as a protector of drug lords, why is somebody high up in Malacañang protecting him?

What does this make of President Duterte’s bloody campaign to eliminate illegal drugs in the country which has claimed the lives of some 3,000 and still counting?

Marcos has been under protective custody at the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame in Metro Manila together with his team involved in the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, Sr in the wee hours of Nov 5 while imprisoned in Baybay Provincial Jail in Leyte.

Side effects of Duterte’s war against illegal drugs

Published by Ellen on August 4, 2016

Photo-journalists capture the moment.Photo by Vincent Go

Do you feel sick watching daily images on TV and newspapers of people killed, lying lifeless on the sidewalks covered with newspapers or plastic with only their dirty feet and worn-out rubber slippers seen?

And of course near the corpse, the cardboard sign “Drug pusher ako, huwag tularan”, which has now become a standard accessory in President Duterte’s war against illegal drugs.

Studies have shown the ill-effects of being exposed to traumatic images.

In an article in the website of Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientist Roxane Cohen Silver of the University of California, Irvine and colleagues said “repeated exposure to vivid traumatic images from the media could lead to long-lasting negative consequences, not just for mental health but also for physical health. “

The article said Silver and her colleagues “speculated that such media exposure could result in a stress response that triggers various physiologic processes associated with increased health problems over time.”

That’s for those who are exposed to disturbing images in media. How much more with members of media who are up close to those gruesome scenes to capture them for the people to know what’s happening in the country.

Duterte: a poor drug user is also a pusher

Published by Ellen on August 2, 2016

Photo by Raffy Lerma of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

A drug user who is rich is not necessarily a pusher because he has the money to buy the illegal substance. But if the drug user is poor, he is also a pusher.

That’s according to President Duterte.

In the President’s meeting with soldiers and policemen in Camp Nakar in Lucena City last July 28, he said “But a user is a pusher. Pwera na lang kung anak ka ni Ayala o ni Consunji o ni Gokongwei, ‘pag nalulong ka sa droga eh maghanap ka ng tao na isusuporta rin ang — sa bisyo mo. Then the other idiot will also contaminate and this must not happen.”

That explains why those killed (465 since Duterte assumed the presidency on June 30, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer) were all wearing rubber slippers. Too poor to even afford shoes .

Is Aquino saying that protection of drug traffickers is national interest?

Published by Ellen on December 12, 2010

There is something wrong here.

President Aquino said the Philippine government boycotted the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in exchange for the freedom of five Filipinos in the death row in China for drug trafficking.

Are we condoning drug trafficking?

What happens now to our own fight against illegal drugs? If we ask foreign governments to relax their laws against Filipinos involved in trafficking of illegal drugs, have we the right to be hard on other nationalities involved in drug trafficking in our own country?

Ang anak ni Chavit

Published by Ellen on July 25, 2010

Tinanong si Chavit Singson, gubernador ng Ilocos Sur, kung dadalawin ni Gloria Arroyo ang kanyang anak na si Rep. Ronald Singson sa kulungan sa Hongkong at mariing niyang itinanggi.

At bakit hindi? Di ba magkakaibigan silang matalik? Di ba dapat ang magkakabibigan nagdadamayan? Lalo na kailangan ni Arroyo ang kakampi sa Kongreso. Kahit durugista ang kongresman ng unang distrito ng Ilocos Sur, kakampi pa rin niya yan.

Mahaba-haba yata ang bakasyon nina Arroyo sa Hongkong ngayon. Noong isang linggo pa silang umalis kasama ang kanyang asawang si Mike at ang isa nyang anak na congressman, si Dato.