Duterte jokes: Rice shortage fault of drug addicts in rehab centers

President Rodrigo Duterte. TOTO LOZANO / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Blame it on drug addicts, again.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday shared a theory that the rice shortage in the country could have been caused by drug addicts in rehabilitation centers who now enjoy eating food.

He said the number of drug addicts surrendering to authorities has been increasing and they have been undergoing rehabilitation.

“Ngayon na marami ng na-rehab kaya tayo nagkaroon ng rice crisis,” Duterte said in jest in a speech in Malacañang, eliciting laughter from his audience, mostly government career executives.

Mr. Duterte, who launched a brutal war on illegal drugs since he assumed the Presidency in June 2016, said drug addicts used to be reed thin due to their drug addiction.

“Kinakain niya ang shabu. Alam mo bakit payat ‘yan sila? Hindi ‘yan sila kumakain. And they keep on grinding their teeth,” he noted.

But Duterte said drugs addicts undergoing rehabilitation were now eating.

“Kumakain na ang mga u*** eh. So maybe next time ‘pag may crisis na naman na – you distribute shabu, kumain ‘yung iba para we can save rice for the others, especially the innocent and the good ones,” he said.

The President in early September denied that there was a rice shortage in the Philippines, saying the issue was just being politicized.  /kga