Around seven million to eight million Filipinos are enslaved by illegal drugs across the country and have become “inutile” and “lost souls,” President Duterte bared over the weekend.
The President announced the increase in the number of drug addicts from an earlier government estimate of three million which he said covered only “greater Manila area.”
“It never included the true figures in the Visayas, Mindanao, pati ‘yung pataas doon sa Baguio and up, Cordillera. So ilan ‘yan sila? Me? I’d place it about seven to eight million now,” Duterte said during an administration’s campaign rally in Laguna last Saturday. “Now tell me. There are seven to eight million Filipinos reduced to slaves to a drug called shabu. Seven to eight million lost souls. Inutil na. I-multiply mo ‘yan sa problema sa pamilya. Ang pag-aaral, pagkain,” he added.
Duterte acknowledged that former Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa earlier estimated there were 1.6 million shabu addicts while former Dangerous Drugs Board chair Dionisio Santiago counted three million drug users. “Tama silang dalawa. Iyong counting na ‘yun, Maynila lang,” he said.
The President sought to clarify the government statistics on drug users in the country following his announcement to wage a “harsher” war on the narcotics trade.
Duterte, in stepping up the drug war, refused to let the country deteriorate into a failed state especially amid the reported presence of two foreign drug cartels in drug trafficking. The government has given conflicting
statistics about the drug users in the country amid the bloody anti-drug campaign.
Duterte initially said there were three to four million addicts who have become useless and dangerous to the community.
Then DDB chair Benjamin Reyes, however, released a government survey stating there were 1.8 million drug users. Reyes was later dismissed by the President for supposedly contradicting the official data on drug users.
Last November, new DDB chair Catalino Cuy reportedly estimated that about four to five million were involved in illegal drugs.
In his Laguna speech, the President has slammed anew the human rights groups who were more concerned about the rights of drug offenders than their victims. He was also annoyed by allegations that he was behind the alleged killing
of 70,000 people in his war on illegal drugs.
“Kayong mga human rights, you worry about one, two, three, four son of a b*tches lying there on their back. Bakit? Iyan lang ang tingnan mo tapos i-publish mo, Ang pinatay ni Duterte umabot ng 70,000?” he said. “P***** i** mo dagdagan mo. Mas marami pa ‘yan,” an irritated Duterte remarked.
Despite criticisms from rights groups, Duterte renewed his promise to resolve the drug problem in the remainder of his term. “The presidency, I said, is a gift from God and I will not waste that gift. At nangako ako to protect and preserve this nation, protect the people,” he said. (Genalyn Kabiling)
