Sison tags PDut as ‘no. 1 drug addict’
MALACAÑANG shrugged off Tuesday the claims of selfexiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison that President Rodrigo Duterte is the “number one drug addict” in the country.
Communications Assistant Secretary for Policy and Legal Affairs Kristian Ablan said Sison, as a Filipino citizen, could exercise his Constitutional right to express how he thinks about the President.
“Regardless if Mr. Sison is outside of the Philippines, he remains to be a Filipino citizen. He has a Constitutional right to freedom of expression. If he was to call the President that [way], that's within his Constitutional right,” Ablan said in a press conference.
In an unabated word war with Duterte, Sison tagged the 71-year-old Chief Executive as the Philippines' top “drug addict” as he was guilty of using Fentanyl, an extremely potent opioid.
Sison said Duterte is the “most fitting target” of the authorities who are tasked to intensify the crackdown on illegal drugs.
“As an addicted user of the opioid Fentanyl, Duterte is the number one drug addict in the Philippines and is the most fitting target of the police units that he has turned into death squads and corrupted with money and promotions,” the communist leader said in a statement Sunday.
It was in December last year when Duterte admitted that he was using Fentanyl patches, a narcotic pain medicine used for the treatment of severe chronic pain, to make him feel better.
The President also said in a speech in February that taking Fentanyl relieved his pain and made him feel like he was on “cloud nine.”
“More than just the disappearance of pain, you feel that you are on cloud nine. It seems everything is okay with the world, nothing to worry about,” Duterte said, recounting that the times when he was using Fentanyl patches.
The spat between Duterte and Sison started after the President scrapped the peace negotiations with the communist group, citing the number of casualties of policemen and soldiers who died in the hands of communist group's armed wing, the New People's Army.
On July 27, Duterte challenged Sison, who he said is a “coward,” to return to the Philippines and join the communist rebels in fighting the government forces.
Sison, who has been in self-exile in the Netherlands for 30 years now, issued a fury response, saying that he was ready to come back home to fight Duterte's “puppet regime of US' (United States) imperialism. SunStar Philippines