Dionisio Santiago

By now Dionisio Santiago has realized that crossing your boss in public, especially if he is the President of the Republic, can be costly. It has cost him his job as chair of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Over a week after he candidly told a TV public affairs show that a 10,000-bed drug rehabilitation facility in Nueva Ecija, now serving only 400 drug users, was a mistake, he got a call from Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea telling him to resign on President Duterte’s orders. “My rule is the boss is always right,” the former military chief said. Mr. Duterte admitted he was offended by his “incongruous statement,” saying Santiago should have talked to him instead of blabbering in public. Santiago’s predecessor, Benjamin Reyes, was forced to quit for disputing Mr. Duterte’s figures on the number of drug suspects.