BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and VICTOR REYES
PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said use of the pain killer fentanyl could have affected the judgment of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who on Sunday called him a “drug addict” and said he had been included in the watch list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Marcos said Duterte’s doctors should take good care of him.
“I think it’s the fentanyl. Fentanyl is the strongest pain killer that you can buy. It is highly addictive and it has very serious side effects, and PRRD (Duterte) has been taking the drug for a very long time now,” he said in a chance interview at the Maharlika Presidential Hangar at the Villamor Air Base before he left for his state visit to Vietnam,.
Duterte, during a prayer rally against efforts to amend the Constitution through people’s initiative, said PDEA showed him the watch list when he was still Davao City mayor years before he became president.
PDEA disputed Duterte’s claim.
“The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency categorically states that President Ferdinand R Marcos, Jr is not in its watch list, contrary to the statement of former President Rodrigo Duterte,” PDEA said in a statement.
Marcos said the former president has said five to six years ago that he had been taking fentanyl for a long time.
“After five, six years, it has to affect him kaya palagay ko, kaya nagkakaganyan. So, you know, I hope his doctors take better care of him than this (After five, six years, it has to affect him that’s why I think, it’s like that. So, you know, I hope his doctors take better care of him than this),” he added.
Duterte, when he was president, said he had been taking fentanyl due to body pains, particularly on his back, after a motorcycle accident. He said his doctors have advised him to undergo surgery to address back pains but partner, Honeylet Avacena who is a nurse, advised against it due to possible complications and a history of “operations for the spinal (that) went awry.”
He said that due to the pain, there was a time he took a lot of fentanyl, a potent pain medication used by cancer patients, which prompted his doctors to order him stop taking it. He said frequent use can lead to the loss of cognitive ability.
Duterte, during the prayer rally in Davao which was held at around the same time as the “Bagong Pilipinas” event of Marcos was ongoing in Manila, also warned the incumbent President he may suffer the fate of his late father and namesake, ousted former president Ferdinand E. Marcos, as his legislative allies are plotting to amend the Constitution to lift term limits.
Marcos laughed off Duterte’s allegations that he is a drug addict when asked to categorically deny that he uses the illegal substance.
“I won’t even dignify the question,” Marcos said before ending the chance interview.
PDEA
Duterte also said the Armed Forces knows “we have a President who is a drug addict.”
Duterte served as Davao City mayor from 1988 to 1998, 2001 to 2010, and 2013 to 2016.
He won the presidential elections in 2016.
PDEA was established in July 2002, paving the way for the creation of its National Drug Information System (NDIS), an intelligence database of all drug personalities.
“From its inception in 2002 and up to the present, President Ferdinand R Marcos, Jr was never in our NDIS,” PDEA said.
Duterte, after assuming the presidency in 2016, came up with the so-called narco-list, also called the “Duterte list,” amid his administration’s extensive war on illegal drugs.
PDEA said the narco-list later became the Inter-Agency Drug Information Database.
“The name of President Marcos is also not in the said list,” PDEA added.
“Based on all the foregoing facts, the PDEA asserts that President Marcos, Jr is not and was never in its watch list,” PDEA said.
The PNP said it has no information indicating President Marcos Jr is a user of illegal drugs.
“On the part of the PNP, we have not seen any document or list that includes the name of our President,” said PNP spokeswoman Col. Jean Fajardo.
“We are giving due respect to our former President. That his is statement…But just as what we said, on the part of the PNP, we have not any document that includes the name of our President,” she said.
PROOF
Speaker Martin Romualdez, a cousin of the President, dared Duterte to prove his allegation.
“…think first and show proof because we all know what you’re saying is not true,” Romualdez said in Filipino during a party leaders caucus on Sunday night.
Romualdez stressed Duterte had failed in his promise to eradicate illegal drugs in three months and in the remainder of his six-year term.
He said after six years of Duterte’s term, illegal drugs still proliferate, and what happened was that a lot of people were killed.
Romualdez warned Duterte to exercise caution in his statements, as he himself may have much to answer for during his term.
The Speaker called on the Dutertes to respect the President and his family, saying they were accorded the same when Duterte was still the President.
“Noong panahon ng rehimen n’yo, iginalang naman kayo. Masyadong maaga naman ninyo gustong ipabagsak ang rehimen ng President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.(During your regime, you were given respect. It’s too early for you to want the downfall of the regime of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.), who is very popular and he was elected with a bigger mandate than the former president. Kaya’t igalang naman natin ‘yan (Let’s respect that),” he said.
Romualdez ha been in conflict with former presidential daughter and now Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio. On Sunday during a forum before the prayer rally, Sara’s brother Davao Mayor Sebastian Duterte said Marcos should step down from the presidency if he does not love the country.
INTRAMURALS
The militant Makabayan bloc at the House said the people are the ones suffering amid the Duterte-Marcos bickering.
“In all this political maneuverings and bickering it is the Filipino people who are again suffering. These costly political intramurals at the expense of taxpayers would not lower the price of rice or gasoline. It would not ensure the livelihood of PUV drivers and operators. It would not raise the salaries of workers, teachers and other government employees. It would not give land to farmers or protect our fisherfolk from China’s bullying. It would not stop our country from being used as a military base of the US,” they said in a statement.
Sen. Francis Escudero said Marcos has a lot of advisers who can tell him what will be their legal move against the former president. He said for him, Duterte can be charged with libel.
He also said Marcos should answer the allegations hurled by Duterte, either by himself or through his spokesman because the allegation that he is included in the drug watch list is a serious matter.
He said there have been were instances when he, too, was criticized for his work in government, but he has never been accused of something as serious as what the former president accuses Marcos of. — With Wendell Vigilia, Raymond Africa and Reuters
