ROUGHCUTS | A disclosure eagerly awaited

Vic N. Sumalinog

HERE is this one serious allegation made by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte against one presidential candidate he did not identify.

     According to him, this candidate sniffs cocaine. Whether the candidate is still doing it until today the President did not say. But what is intriguing to us, and perhaps to a lot of people, is his claim that the candidate used to do his vice In Manila and even in Davao. If we read between the lines it is easier to discern that the presidential candidate has friends in Davao City who either provided him the prohibited substance or that he or she or they joined him during their sniffing sessions.

     The President, however, did not give a specific time frame with when the candidate was, or is, in the thick of his expensive vice. If the candidate did it some years back or say, during the prime of his youth we can very well understand that Duterte who was not yet the mayor of Davao City during those times could not have cared more, even if we assume that he may have known the friends and co-drug users of the now presidential aspirant.

     On the other hand, if the said candidate frequented Davao City to do his cocaine intake in the city within the last 30 to 40 years when the President was already serving as mayor of Davao, he could not have missed the illegal activities of the presidentiable. And all the more that he could not have known who his contacts in Davao City were. Let no one forget that it was his unconventional style of fighting the illegal drug trade in the city and against criminality in general, that the then-mayor was catapulted to the national as well as international prominence. So, how could he be possibly unaware of the illegal drug sessions involving the unnamed presidentiable and his equally well-footed friends in the Duterte country? It is most likely to have happened however if his intelligence men and other informers were soundly asleep when the names of those people including the presidential bet were among those who cropped up as targets of raids or drug busting operations.

     So, many, including some of the President’s men, were somewhat taken aback when he said he only knew about it recently.

     Personally, we believe in the President’s being intensely passionate in his campaign to rid the country of illegal drugs. We are also convinced that the way he undertook the campaign in Davao City was the right thing and replicating it at the national level is the best approach at this time when the drug lords are destroying the moral fiber of society at all levels. But what disappointed us is the President’s claim that he knew of this one presidentiable being a cocaine user for an undetermined period and perpetuating his undesirable vice at times in his city, “only recently.” Is this one subtle way of admitting that despite his being known as a no-nonsense implementer of his war against illegal drugs, there were, and still are, some of his most trusted men who took or are taking him for a ride by shrewdly concealing certain aspects of their operation when influential people are involved?

     We are eagerly waiting for the time that President Duterte will finally name the cocaine-sniffing aspirant to the presidency and the men in Davao City who were with him in this most expensive and dastardly vice ever to be involved in mostly by the high and mighty, financially and power-wise.

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     From what we were informed of, we learned that the areas in Tugbok District, specifically the barangay of Talandang and its surrounding villages, are already declared as off-limits to the establishment of poultry and piggery farms. But we are just surprised to know only recently that there are new large poultry farms being constructed and developed. 

     These days, every time the chicken, hundreds of thousands of heads of them, are being harvested, swarms of flies seem to invade every household in the area. Even doors and windows of some residences closed to the poultry farms appear like nearing dusk because the light’s entry is blocked by the swarm of the squirmy tiny insects all wanting to get inside the houses.

     Of course, there is nothing house owners can do about it. The “invasion” by the germ-carrying flies is becoming a regular thing in places where the poultry and swine farms are plenty. The insects have also become resistant to even the strongest chemical that is used to drive them away. So we would not be surprised if diseases will fester in areas like the ones in Tugbok District and in other districts in the city where poultry farms abound.

     But all this apprehension of potential outbreaks of infectious diseases may be erased if the local government regulators will implement to the letter all the policies provided in the City’s Amended Zoning Ordinance. That is, stop the establishment of poultry farms in residential areas even if these are still categorized as agricultural. Or, better still, amend again the ordinance and designate certain areas in the city where the farms of this kind of business are isolated from a huge number of people.

     After all, Davao City is now having the best network of farm-to-market roads. Why not our city planning authorities take advantage of such a facility?           

 

       

ROUGHCUTS | A disclosure eagerly awaited
Source: Viral Media Philippines