In his recent trip to Russia to see Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Rodrigo Duterte declared that two of his generals are still connected and involved in his most dreaded enemy of which all the problems of the country faces are interconnected according to him, illegal drugs.
Its interesting as it was said by him in the face of Putin and in the Russian soil where corrupt generals or those military officers who do not tow the line are simply executed.
The statement of Duterte came as a puzzle since he has not provided any hints prior the announcement plus all the rhetorics which he usually does with might and threats of murder.
The president has not clarified if the two generals are from the Philippine National Police (PNP) force or the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) or the retired officers of both.
The president added that before he left for Russia, the country is listening to the unfolding and revealing investigation of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee involving the alleged “13 ninja cops” who conducted a drug bust back in 2013 in Mexico, Pampanga and reported only 31 kilograms of shabu when a succeeding investigation of the anti-drug operation yielded a report of more than 200 kilograms of the illegal substance.
The head of the team that executed the bust was Lt. Col. Rodney Baloyo was ordered dismissed by the then Regional Director of PNP Region 3 Raul Petrasanta but the latest senate investigation revealed that no less than PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde who was then the Provincial Director of Pampanga meddled and requested Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) head Aaron Aquino then the director of PNP Central Luzon not to implement the decision.
It was revealed by Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong then the chief of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) who investigated the Baloyo case that most of the PNP officers involved in the operation Albayalde included got or were able to purchase brand new SUVs.
Albayalde the country’s top cop denied the statement of Magalong and Aquino. He insinuated that the issue came out because of the politics inside the police organization especially now that he is retiring and is about to endorse a new Chief PNP to the president.
Baloyo et al are still in the police force and during the senate hearing was seen wearing a wrist watch worth P2 million. One can only imagine the riches of Baloyo.
Now the question is plain and simple. Who are the two generals the president is referring to? He declared the other day that he will kill these two and those who are involved in the illegal drugs.
We cannot deny the posiblity that the president perhaps is back to his own self manufacturing and concocting stories inside his mind and later announcing it as credible intelligence-sourced information.
I can still remember a certain Congressman Jeffrey Celiz from Iloilo whom Duterte accused of involvement in the illegal drug trade. It made his narco-list a piece of little truths, half truths, lies and mere palagpat at worst a simple act of vendetta against those who are believed to have supported Mar Roxas last presidential elections.
With no credible information and supported by factual evidences, the complex web of illegal drugs syndicate inside the government will remain. Even those with clear and present links into the illegal drug trade will get a fair chance of being appointed to hold public office. The cycle will continue and those in the lower tier of the illegal drug business will continuously become scapegoats and scores just to show the public that the government is hell-bent in pursuing a drug free Philippines.
Meantime, the president will continue talking about his long and never-ending rhetorics about killing everyone involved in illegal drugs and linking every member of the opposition and critics of his government into the illegal drug trade.
Critical vigilance is needed though as for all we knew something is brewing as of the moment inside the Duterte band of brothers using only the issue on illegal drugs as their loud cover.
