MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
Not unexpectedly, the government TV channel has been running a series of news features on the Duterte legacy, including his signature war on drugs. On his birthday, the President was congratulated by his executive team – cabinet secretaries – for having fulfilled his mission even as PRRD told the people he was now “in the sunset of my life” and “walking with a limp” caused by motorcycle-riding accidents.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones, whose greeting was the most personal, recalled how the boss gave her three pointers, two of which I was able to catch: Teach children 10 years old and older about gender equality and gender differences, and educate every child on the evils of drug addiction.
As unwinnable as any drug war can be, the gains made by the police, military and PDEA look to be as significant as the strides made by the suppliers and dealers. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? To cynics and numbers crunchers, the score is far from a passing-grade success, with daily reports of drug seizures, buy-bust ops, arrests not slackening but spiking. In other words, if the supply of illegal drugs has not diminished, where is the war headed? More business for the lords to prey on the young and vulnerable, more families destroyed by death in slow motion?
Purely out of curiosity (and boredom), I took note of the drug war beginning March 12, when a factory in Caloocan was discovered with more than ₱1 billion in “finished products,” i.e., liquid shabu, plus cooking equipment and paraphernalia. In the following days, the confiscations were consistently in the millions. March 13, ₱44.8 million; March 14, ₱26 million; March 15, ₱12 billion in Quezon, source unknown; followed in succeeding days by petty (in comparison) sums of a few million.
Only to return to the big high with a vengeance. A busy day it was, March 23, ₱30 million worth of cocaine dropped into the river from a yacht in Cagayan; ₱387 million shabu inserted in tea bags, Quezon City; ₱6.8 million, Cavite; in addition to four less spectacular incidents.
PDEA reports that smuggled Ecstasy has increased by 460 percent while marijuana is now the top favorite “both on the demand and supply side.” Parents, teachers, love your children, be vigilant!