Tom lauds Duterte’s war on drugs

Having known President Duterte for more than 30 years, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said there is not much to be expected from the president’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) tomorrow.

Osmeña said the president has been doing well in his campaign against illegal drugs.

"I agree with his style in fighting drugs. If he didn't do what he did, we will be in a very bad state today," the mayor said.

In Cebu City, police arrested 3,283 suspected drug personalities during the conduct of their 2,535 antiillegal drug operations from July 2016 to June 2017.

Osmeña said he is contented with the Duterte administration's war against illegal drugs.

He added that Duterte is also “consistent.”

But he admitted that some of the administration’s moves did not sit well with him.

For one, he said, was when the Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa implemented a massive revamp and reshuffle of police officials and operatives, including the mayor’s “trusted men.”

They are Superin- tendents Rex Derilo and George Ylanan, Police Regional Office-7 director Superintendent Patrocinio Comendador, and Senior Superintendent Benjamin Santos, former Cebu City Police Office director.

Another was the appointment of Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) head Michael Lloyd Dino and Regional Development Council-7 cochairman Kenneth Cobonpue.

"I don't like his (Duterte) choice of presidential assistants or his RDC (co)chairman," Osmeña said.

Osmeña and Dino have an ongoing rift, which reportedly began years before Duterte became president.

It worsened when Dino expressed to lobby for the cancellation of the Bus Rapid Transit project in Cebu in favor of the light railway transit (LRT).

In a letter addressed to Duterte, Dino recently sought for a review of the BRT project’s viability as a mass transport system.

Cobonpue, on the other hand, issued a statement saying that the council will look into the feasibility and financial viability of the project since the project cost ballooned to P16.9 billion from P10.6 billion.

OsmeñabelievesthatDino is behind the "orchestration" of the increasing number of personalities that are objecting to the BRT project.