EVERY time a President goes abroad for a state visit, it is customary to conduct a press conference or issue a departure statement that talks about the trip — itinerary, events to be attended, meetings with the officials of the country to be visited, and general expectations about the visit.
But on Monday, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was saying goodbye to the nation for his scheduled state visit to Vietnam, the exigencies of politics pressured him to defend himself from accusations he was taking illegal drugs. The accusation initially came from bloggers who were former close friends and supporters, and later, from former President Rodrigo Duterte who has made public he was taking fentanyl, a strong painkiller that is on the list of most dangerous drugs in the United States.
During an anti-Charter Change rally in Davao City last Sunday, the former president who implemented a vicious war on drugs during his term, said that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) showed him an official list of celebrity drug users when he was mayor of Davao City, and the name of Bongbong Marcos was on the list.
‘The nation has just witnessed the first salvo of a political war between the Duterte camp, to which Sen. Imee Marcos who was present during the Davao City rally belongs, and the Marcos-Romualdez group…’
It can be recalled that during the last presidential campaign, Duterte hinted that a popular presidential candidate was himself a drug addict. He did not name the candidate but the only President with the mastery of vitriolic attacks on people, institutions and ideas that he dislikes is publicly known to have opposed the idea of his daughter Sara running as Marcos’ vice president.
Coming from a former leader and spewed at a public rally in the biggest city in the South, the scathing virulence is not one to be ignored, even by a president who thinks he is above it all. Marcos said he will not dignify the question from the media asking whether he is a drug addict, but in the same breath, noted Duterte was taking fentanyl.
“I think it’s the fentanyl. Fentanyl is the strongest painkiller you can buy. It is highly addictive and it has very serious side effects and PRRD has been taking the drug for a very long time now,” said Marcos in an ambush interview in Pasay before he left for Vietnam. Marcos said the painkiller intake was bound to have some sort of effect on Duterte.
The PDEA, under the current officials who were appointed by Marcos, was quick with this statement clearing the President: “The PDEA categorically states that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is not in its watch list… Former President Duterte was mayor of Davao from 1988 to 1998; 2001 to 2010; then 2013 to 2016. PDEA, on the other hand, was activated on July 30, 2002. When PDEA was activated, it established its National Drug Information System or NDIS, which is still in existence today. The NDIS is the intelligence database of all drug personalities, gathering inputs from counterparts in both law enforcement and intelligence agencies. From its inception in 2002 and up to the present, President Marcos was NEVER in our NDIS.
“When Duterte took over in 2016, his administration came out with a list, which was then initially called the narco-list. Upon continuing validation and revalidation, it became the Inter-Agency Drug Information Database or IDID. The name of President Marcos is also not in the said list.”
The nation has just witnessed the first salvo of a political war between the Duterte camp, to which Sen. Imee Marcos who was present during the Davao City rally belongs, and the Marcos-Romualdez group, amid the continuing move to revise the Constitution which is just another manifestation of this feud.
This administration which was swept to power on a call for unity is ironically being emasculated by severe disunity, as the nation suffers economically.
