President-elect Rodrigo Duterte reacts on the concert tragedy in Pasay City in a press conference held in Davao City past midnight Thursday, May 26. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte blamed the lack of law enforement authorities during a concert in Pasay City last week which killed five concertgoers.
“It was a failure of intelligence. It’s unacceptable,” Duterte told the press here after he called for a conference to react on the incident past midnight of Thursday, May 26.
Duterte said he was forced to call for a press conference because “nobody is talking about the incident… something that would convey to the public the anger of the parents.”
Five people died after suffering difficulties in breathing at the Forever Summer concert of toothpaste brand, Close Up, held in Pasay City on Saturday, May 21.
Police authorities are eyeing drugs in the deaths of the fatalities who were identified as Ariel Leal, 22; Lance Garcia, 36; Bianca Fontejon; Ken Migawa, 18 and American national, Eric Anthony Miller, 33.
“There is a national team and there is the local of Pasay. How come nakalusot yun? (How come it happened?),” Duterte said, citing the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Philippine National Police, and the Department of National Defense.
Duterte said he is guessing that “the bottle that was passed on to everybody caused the death of the young men there.”
“You know in rock concerts, passing of drugs happen. May mga gago talaga eh (There are really those who are hard-headed),” said Duterte.
Duterte said if the law enforcers were there during the concert, the incident would have been avoided.
“Where was the anti-drug agency, or whatever the agency is called? Where are the police? Where is PDEA? How come there were so many who died?” he said.
Deadly mix
Duterte said he believes the death of the victims is triggered by a “deadly mix”.
“It was a deadly mix intended to kill people,” he said.
Duterte said the drugs used could be a mixture of “upper” and “downer”
“The brain would never know where to go when you mix upper and downer,” he said.
Major reshuffle
Duterte said there will be a massive reshuffle of police and military.
“There will be a massive reshuffle so I’m putting the notice now to everybody,” he said.
He said those who are in Muntinlupa should be ready to “ship out”.
“I’m not threatening you but I’m going to do it,” said Duterte.
Duterte said the government cannot prevent the people from crowding into one assembly, but the government officials are “paid to prevent those accidents to happen.”
The NBI’s initial findings on Monday, May 23 showed that “massive heart attacks” that killed the victims Fontejon and Garcia pointed to drug overdose which caused by high blood pressure, kidney failure and dehydration. (davaotoday.com)
