CEBU CITY — President Rodrigo R. Duterte should not be blamed for the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country, said Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino.
Dino made the statement after Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the government won’t be able to rid the country of the drug menace unless the President makes a move against China, which the local executive believes is the source of the illegal substance.
“Don’t you dare blame President Duterte for the drug problem,” Dino told the mayor in a press statement released to the media Tuesday night.
“The proliferation of illegal drugs is not due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s adherence to an independent foreign policy which resulted in the warming of relations with China and other foreign nations,” he added.
Dino said the President is an astute sovereign leader, whose actions and pronouncements show that he is not afraid of China contrary to what Osmeña would like the people to believe.
The mayor’s pronouncements also imply that Chinese President Xi Jingping is likewise afraid of the drug traders in his country, he added.
“It takes a President Duterte to wage an all-out war against this menace. Drugs are a worldwide scourge and every nation must fight it,” Dino said.
The President is focused on the war against drugs because of the fact that some local officials are either involved in the illegal drugs trade or receiving protection money from drug lords.
The problem with Osmeña, Dino said, is that instead of disproving the allegations hurled against him as a drug coddler, the mayor resorts to “doublespeak, squid tactic, and bullying.”
When the issue on Reynaldo “Jumbo” Diaz’s affidavit, where it was alleged that Osmeña received a total of PHP7 million from the former’s late drug lord-cousin Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz cropped up, the mayor accused Banco de Oro (BDO) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the people behind it.
Furthermore, when Osmeña’s social media campaign against BDO failed, the mayor took a swipe at Dino and then at National Police Commission-7 Director Homel Cabaral.
“I just kept silent until he (Osmeña) blamed the President. I cannot countenance the act of the mayor in criticizing President Duterte’s independent foreign policy just to divert the issue on alleged protection money he allegedly received from Jaguar,” Dino said.
“Remember this, Mayor Osmeña. You might not be on the list of PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency), or the PNP (Philippine National Police) might not have received any report about (you) being an alleged drug protector, but the DOJ has an affidavit that alleged you received PHP7 million from Jaguar. Again, don’t you dare blame the President for the drug proliferation in your city,” Dino told Osmeña in his statement.
Over the weekend, the mayor said that while President Duterte has done so much in the campaign against drugs, the problem still persists.
“The President has done so much. The question is why is he seems to be afraid to move against China. If you ask me, from where I stand, it’s (drugs) from China. Even in the laboratories in Manila, they’re all made in China. I wonder what the government will do about this,” Osmeña said. (PNA)
