President Duterte is not keeping his mouth shut despite the advice of some of his allies to go easy against those who criticize the government’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.
“Sabi ni…Gordon…’stop making noise.’ No, I cannot stop. Because I would lose the momentum,” the Chief Executive said in a speech before local chief executives at the “Sulong Pilipinas: Local Governance Series” in Makati City Tuesday.
“I cannot afford it because I am now the President. The momentum has to be there and it will be there for six years until the last pusher is taken out of this place,” he added.
Sen. Richard J. Gordon had admonished the President for his repeated pronouncements of his desire to kill drug addicts and dealers in the country.
Gordon, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said that the President is “too noisy” and because of this, Duterte is “falling on his own sword.”
Duterte urged local government executives to do their work in the country’s fight against illegal drugs.
The Chief Executive emphasized that the illegal drug problem is now a major problem in the Philippines. He pointed out that the country is already slipping into a narco-state and this must be aborted at once and justified his bloody crackdown against illegal drugs that has been widely criticized here and abroad due to the alleged extrajudicial killing of suspects.
“If I do not interdict this problem now, I will have to compromise the next generation,” said Duterte, noting that there are now more than three million drug addicts throughout country.
“By the end of the year, it’s going to hit another million,” the President said. This would bring the number of drug addicts nationwide to four million. (ELENA L. ABEN)