“DRUG WAR ‘POSTER BOY’ TURNS AGAINST BATO, GO – iNQUIRER headline. Police Lt. Col. Jovie Espinosa, the "Drug War Poster Boy" of the administration of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte alleged in the quad committee of the House of Representatives that "Senators Christofer ‘Bong’ Go and Ronald 'Bato' dela Rosa ordered “police officers to use ‘all means necessary’ to eradicate drug suspects – including killing them – and rewarding the deed.”
As this direct testimony of one of the key enforcers of the past Duterte administration’s bloody “War on Drugs” was seen on mainstream TV, it looks like the Filipino people have just been officially informed, so to speak, that the past administration headed by former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte was really guilty of the Extra Judicial Killings (EJKs) of countless Filipinos.
As expected for the past months until today, when asked by the press people about their possible participation in the implementation of the bloody “War on Drugs,” Senators Bato dela Rosa and Bong Go expressed their respective denials.
The fact is in an earlier quad committee hearing, the former police drug operative ex-BOC officer Jimmy Guban linked “former President Rodrigo Duterte’s son, son-in-law and Chinese economic adviser” to an P11-billion drug shipment in 2018. Needless to say, people have been aware of the official affidavits of self-confessed ex-DDS operatives Edgar Matubato and Arturo Lascanas, detailing their actual implementation of the direct instructions of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and his Davao City Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa in carrying out “Operation Tokhang,” resulting in a killing spree of thousands of suspected drug users, pushers and alleged drug personalities. Arturo Lascanas, in an interview by a journalist, shown on social media, dared to say that the biggest drug lord in Davao was former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
What is the truth? The Department of Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla and, of course, the Office of the President, and other government agencies mandated to pursue justice for every Filipino, should ferret out the truth about who are most responsible for the bloody “War on Drugs.”
This administration of the erstwhile Unitem tandem of President Bongbong Marcos and VP Sarah Duterte should posthaste make the urgent decision calling to account all those responsible for this pestering drug problem.
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