Atienza to colleagues: Support Duterte’s campaign vs drugs

BUHAY party-list Rep. Lito Atienza on Wednesday called on his fellow lawmakers to pass a resolution declaring full support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

“I challenge my fellow lawmakers to join me in sponsoring a House Resolution expressing our unanimous support for President Duterte in his war on drugs. Today marks the 1,109th day of President Duterte’s campaign to rid the country of the drug menace,” he said.

Atienza lamented that the country “is fast becoming a center of drug distribution.”

“Walatayongginawasanakaraangpanahon (We have not done anything for the past years). For the past three years, we had been expecting that Congress, especially those coming from the majority, could have sponsored an immediate expression of support in the form of a resolution. But none came. Now it is most timely to give the President all the support we can give. If we cannot be part of the solution, then let us not be part of the problem. If the President loses this war, we will all be in deeper trouble,” Atienza said in a privilege speech.

The party-list lawmaker warned that the drug problem could not be won only with violence, since this would only beget more violence.

“We support the President in this war against illegal drugs. But we believe that this war cannot be won with violence. As the good old saying goes, violence only begets more violence. Neither can it be done by reimposing the death penalty. We are kidding ourselves if we believe this. Hindiitoangsolusyon.Lalonglalalaang problema.Hindinanatatakotangmga drug lords sa death penalty (This is not the solution. The problem will only get worse. Drug lords are no longer afraid of death penalty),” he said.

Atienza proposed a more comprehensive approach to the problem to include prevention, enhanced sports training, rehabilitation and stricter enforcement of laws.

He said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Dangerous Drugs Board should be given bigger budgets to make them more effective.

“How can we expect government to win this war with these small budget allocations, while we spend hundreds of millions and even billions on other departments? Congress has the power of the purse. This is the best opportunity for us to do our job. Let us show the international community that we are all solidly behind our President,” Atienza said.