We have barely survived six years of a drug war that has left the nation bloodied and divided, yet two years after the end of the Duterte presidency that started it, we are seeing another kind of drug war happening.
This war takes place not in police ops in the alleys of slums, but rather in high places, as the disintegrated Uniteam of the Marcoses and Dutertes throw “politically motivated” allegations of illegal drugs against each other.
This fight runs like a boxing match.
Round 1 finds the former president Rodrigo Duterte (FPRD) throwing the first shot in his newly formed Hakbang ng Maisug rally last January, as he revived his claims that the current occupant in Malacañang “bangag” (high).
President Bongbong Marcos’ reply to this was to talk about the effects of fentanyl “acting up” on its users, insinuating Duterte’s addiction to this painkiller which he had admitted to using to relieve pain from his ailments.
Round 2, the Maisug group releases a video before Marcos Jr.’s SONA, supposedly showing the president sniffing a substance in a sachet. Marcos Jr. doesn’t flinch. Members of the defense department call this video AI-generated and threaten to go after people who made this video. FPRD issues a challenge to Marcos Jr. to take a hair follicle test to dispel this allegation.
Round 3, FPRD’s son Congressman Paolo ‘Polong’ Duterte took this fight to Congress a few weeks ago, filing a law requiring elected and appointed officials to take periodic drug tests. His fellow solons appear not to support the move. Fellow Davawenyos question his motive, like Davao Oriental Cheeno Almario and PBA Partylist Rep. and rival Migz Nograles challenging Polong to show up in plenary sessions to defend his bill.
Round 4, Congress starts its special four-committee hearings on the links to POGO and illegal drugs operations. Polong’s name came out again during the first day of the hearing last August 17 as an alleged member of the “Davao Group” handling and bribing customs officers on shipments. His brother-in-law and Vice President’s lawyer husband Maneses Carpio is implicated as well. This is an old allegation that saw Polong and Carpio squeak away from a Senate hearing. Again, Polong is put on the defensive.
The hearing continued and implicated FPRD in masterminding the deaths of three Chinese nationals detained for drug operation in 2016.
These accusations have riled up Marcos and Duterte support bases on the Internet, their breakup and war have taken over spaces of news and conversations.
As the filing for candidacies for the 2025 mid-term elections is coming in the first week of October which is over a month away, we look with concern at how important issues are being left out because of this war.
What we can take from this though, is how Duterte’s vaunted anti-drug mantra is thinning away with the accusations of protecting drug syndicates linked to China. Then there is the probe from the International Criminal Court holding Duterte to account for the deaths of thousands.
The Marcoses are using this issue to keep their rivals from wresting their power and perhaps may hold on to it with an anointed candidate for 2028.
But here’s the question: if we were hoodwinked by Duterte’s promise of “three to six months”, we should be wary of Marcos Jr.’s promise of “bente pesos” for a kilo of rice.
These political wars should not distract us from the real wars against poverty, corruption, and lack of education that could really make the difference for our nation.
