By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
July 6, 2018
In the open forum of the Press Conference with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) yesterday, July 5, 2018, I mentioned the following manifestations of how Duterte no less is the No.1 protector of the illegal drug trade in the Philippines:
- Duterte promised to wipe out the illegal drug trade in the first three to six months of his presidential term. He failed to do so after more than 2 years. Ínstead, the drug problem has worsened and become more rampant in Davao and nationwide.
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It turns out that Cebu-based Peter Lim (rated as one of the three biggest drug lords in the country) is his compadre and close associate.
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Duterte publicly promised to kill Lim if he returned to the Philippines although he was in Cebu all the time.
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Duterte´s Secretary of Justice Aguirre summarily absolved Peter Lim and Peter Co from being involved in the drug trade. But Duterte never complained about their getting off the hook under the office of the president.
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Duterte´s son Paolo and son-in-law Atty. Carpio have been implicated in the smuggling of 6.4 billion pesos worth of shabu and an earlier shipment of 24.6 billion worth of shabu. But these close presidential relatives have been cleared together with their Chinese accomplices. Only a poor warehouse guard has been indicted for the huge smuggling case.
It is Duterte and his close relatives who must explain why the drug problem has become worse, why Peter Lim and Peter Co have gone scotfree despite Duterte´s braggart statement that he would kill Peter Lim and despite the fact that no one has been arrested and indicted for the smuggling of shabu worth 6.4 billion pesos, except for the token arrest and detention of a poor bodeguero.
The manifestations I mention above have been supported by evidence presented to investigators and to the public. But the powerful tyrant Duterte has been able to squelch investigations by the Senate and by prosecutors. The press has been able to ventilate the pertinent testimonies of Taguba and others and customs records and show pictures of the huge shipment of shabu and the customs officials and Chinese complicit in smuggling and warehousing it. ###
