Sison concurs with Robredo claim that war on drugs a failure
LUCENA CITY –– Communist rebel leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison on Tuesday agreed with Vice President Leni Robredo’s claim that the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs was a failure.
“I think that her (Robredo) report is fact-based and is truthful,” Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder, said in a solicited reaction from his base in Utrecht in The Netherlands.
“It is true that the Duterte regime has hardly stopped even only one percent of the illegal drug trade and that thousands of Filipinos have been murdered in Oplan Tokhang and that the drug lords have been scot-free,” he said.
Sison further claimed that the government’s war on drugs was a “big fake.”
“Most people think that is a mere cover for the supreme lordship of Duterte himself. His own son and son-in-law and his Chinese cronies have been exposed as involved in drug smuggling,” Sison said.
“The Duterte crime family is known to use governors, generals, and police officers as agents in the smuggling and distribution of the illegal drugs,” Sison added.
Sison said he did not know who is in Robredo’s diagram or list of the most powerful and privileged drug lords.
President Duterte and members of his family had repeatedly strongly denied the allegations that they were protectors of the big-time illegal drug trade in the country.
The Duterte family countered that the accusations against them were all black propaganda concocted by the political opposition.
Sison said Robredo’s reports and recommendations have “exposed what Duterte and his subordinates have not done to solve the problem of illegal drugs.”
He alleged that proofs were abundant that the drug problem has become worse under the Duterte regime.
“Duterte himself has averred that drug addicts have increased by leaps and bounds by the millions under his watch,” Sison said.
On Monday, citing data from government agencies, Robredo reported that the authorities had seized only less than one percent of the total estimated consumption of “shabu” (crystal meth) throughout the bloody drug campaign that started after Duterte’s election in 2016.
Robredo said that according to the Philippine National Police’s Drug Enforcement Group, the approximate minimum consumption of shabu in the country per week is 3,000 kilograms, or about 156,000 kg a year.
