‘Forgotten’ war
The cynic in me can’t help but wonder if what’s happening in Bohol right now has anything to do with the Duterte administration’s losing war against illegal drugs.
I say “losing” because how else do you describe the current drug situation?
Yes, thousands of suspected drug personalities have been neutralized either in legitimate police operations or in the hands of masked terminators on wheels, but there’s no sign of the problem abating. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case.
The war against drugs has also revealed many skeletons in the police organization’s closet. And so earlier in the year, the government shifted its focus on cleaning police ranks.
Many police personnel have been linked to the illegal drugs trade. In fact, the Police Regional Office 7 had subjected several officials to lifestyle checks. Seventy-two active officers failed to explain their wealth. As of last month, only nine were charged.
They have not been named, these scalawags. The public has also not been told of what had become of the rest.
That is not to say the “good cops” have been remiss in their jobs because they’re not. They risk their lives as they try to root out the source of this social malaise. That’s why they continue to seize hundreds of thousands sometimes millions worth of shabu. Every day.
Just last April 23, a buy-bust in Barangay Lawaan 3, Talisay City yielded illegal drugs worth close to P1.3 million.
While we’re on the subject, the number of incidents of unidentified motorcycle-riding men shooting individuals with drug ties is on the rise.
Last Friday alone, four men were killed in such fashion in the cities of Talisay, Lapu-Lapu and the southern town of San Fernando.
In Barangay Pajac, Lapu-Lapu City last Wednesday, two men were also shot in the head by an unknown assailant. Police believed that the victims’ death had something to do with illegal drugs.
These operations, these happenings, all have been overshadowed by the appearance of members of the Jihadist terror group in Bohol.
When news broke out that government troops clashed with suspected terrorists in Inabanga last April 11, many were shocked. And rightly so.
Since the Abu Sayyaf emerged in the limelight in 1991, it had confined its banditry in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in southwestern Mindanao. And yet, just like that, it has decided to spread its terror in our neck of the woods.
So my question is, why now? What had forced the group to come out of the woodwork?
Meanwhile, on our shores, the Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention revealed that close to a hundred personnel from 40 barangays in the city tested positive of illegal drug use.