By John Rey Saavedra/PNA
CEBU CITY — President Rodrigo R. Duterte issued Sunday a stern warning that he will make the remaining years of his presidency the “most dangerous years” for people who are into drugs.
Duterte noted during a sortie of the ruling party’s senatorial candidates here that illegal drugs have created social dysfunction that directly affects Filipino families.
“Consider my last three years as the most dangerous years for people who are into drugs either pusher, trafficker, or drug lord… I will make it very dangerous for you to live,” Duterte told the crowd that attended the PDP-Laban rally at the Plaza Independencia.
He said he had warned the drug syndicates at the start of this term after the 2016 presidential elections that he would run after them.
He described a person addicted into drugs as having a “monkey riding on his back” that keeps scratching and biting and makes him commit other crimes just to sustain his addiction to drugs.
The President warned on the extent of social dysfunction created by drugs on the family once its head enters the illicit business.
“Ang kuwarta nga hinagoan, ang money intended for the family. Bugas, wa nay moabot sa lamesa. Ang mga anak nga nag-eskuwela di na makaadto eskuwelahan wa nay pang-tuition, pangpalit unsa para sa unsa pa (The money intended for the family. Like rice, no more [food] would reach the table. Children could no longer go to school because the tuition and other stuff are gone),” he said. “The family becomes dysfunctional.”
Parents, he said, should force their children to stop using drugs.
Duterte reiterated his earlier warning that the ill-effect of drugs in the human brain would make a person commit crimes such as rape. He deplored incidents when drug addicts raped even a toddler.
He further warned those who are not into drugs to refrain from joining the illicit business which, he said, will make their lives miserable.
“Kamong wa pa makasugod ayaw gyud mo… Kamong nakasugod, og kaya ninyo moundang , undang na mo, pag-antos lang mo sa rehab (Those who have not started yet, please don’t… Those who have started already, if you can stop it, please stop it, just bear the hardships in the rehabilitation center), Duterte said. “Ayaw boanga ang akong nasud. Ayaw daug-daoga ang akong isi’g ka Pilipino (Don’t fool my country around. Do not bully my fellow Filipinos).”
He also warned narco-generals “for committing treason” against their fellowmen.
The President mentioned Daanbantayan, Cebu Mayor Vicente Loot, a retired one-star police general, who was one of the five alleged narco-generals he named at the beginning of his term in 2016.
Another personality from Cebu he mentioned was businessman Peter Lim, who he warned last week “not to surrender to him alive.”
Talisay City, which has many barangays infested with drugs, did not escape from the tongue-lashing of the President.
In his speech during the distribution of conditional cash transfer benefits at the Cebu Trade University (CTU) before the evening rally at Plaza Independendia, he warned residents of Talisay that he intended to wipe out illegal drugs in that city.
