Trillanes: Duterte putting PDEA at drug war forefront a ploy to dampen EJK outrage

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Friday said President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to replace the police with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as lead agency in his anti-drug war campaign was merely a ploy to dampen public outrage against the extrajudicial killings in the country.

“That was always Duterte’s plan. The transfer to PDEA was merely a ruse to appease the public’s outrage over the high-profile extrajudicial killings in August and September,” Trillanes said in a statement.

Trillanes was referring to the sensational cases of teenagers Kian Loyd delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz, who were both killed by cops in Caloocan City amid the government’s drug war.

READ: PDEA vows EJK-free, transparent anti-drug operations

“Duterte’s war on drugs was never about eradicating illegal drugs. It is but his instrument to sow terror and fear in the hearts of his own people so they would praise and worship him or at least won’t criticize or oppose him,” Trillanes said.

“That is what a narcissistic tyrant like him longs for,” he added.

Duterte recently mentioned in a speech that he might bring the PNP back in the drug war.

Duterte replaced the PNP in the anti-drug campaign and placed PDEA at the forefront amid the rising number of reports of human rights violations and vigilante killings allegedly committed by the police. /jpv