By Erik Espina
The intimation of a drug list by no less than President DU30 emphasized the extent of the menace in our society, as well made a definitive point in the dreariness of a republican nation infested with public servants cascading into the world of narco-politics. Finally, the alarm bells were sounded, the national problem exposed into the sunlight for every Filipino to realize the Philippine State is tethering on an endemic precipice.
A radical intervention immediately required to arrest the increasing number of drug-addicts, dependents, drug profits, and families affected by this lucrative trade, in its indiscriminate lure and eventual victimization of the innocent.
The folder bearing the names of alleged politicians, judges, and uniformed personnel etc. involved in drugs is a testament to what should have been a “war on drugs” initiated years back by previous Presidents before it became a dreaded multi-headed hydra e.g. with high profile drug investors, protectors, manufacturers, pushers, and imprisoned bosses/conduits with contacts abroad.
Serious labor dedicated to review and presently validate said list to keep it current and factual, deleting personalities that passed-on or mistakenly included for political reasons e.g. by authorities at the sub-national level, or implicated by crooked law enforcers to wipe the slate clean of their own involvement in a payola system.
The question must also be posed, were there VIPs who, because of back-door connections, unknown to the Palace, managed to skip or delist inclusion? What of politicians who accept gratuitous monthly contributions from drug-lords to see, hear, and speak no evil. Or campaign funds from known or notorious drug syndicates every election?
Are there jueteng lords/operators in a combine of drug trading? Cases and suspensions must be filed and served ASAP, for such is the language of justice when public trust is violated. The pruning of the drug list must be expedited in a thorough, meticulous, and judicious manner to cleanse reputations which regrettably may have been tarnished, with allegations and evidence to this day, unsubstantiated.
