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Go after big-time drug lords, De Lima dares Duterte


Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday dared President Rodrigo Duterte to apprehend big-time drug lords instead of targeting the poor and helpless.

“How can this government succeed in its much-avowed campaign to solve the drug menace in the country when it only targets the ordinary Juan de la Cruzes whom he thinks incapable of protecting themselves?” the senator asked.

She said it has been two years since Duterte embarked on his war on drugs and yet high-profile drug pushers and users "unabashedly continue with their illegal activities."

De Lima's statement came five days after the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested two suspected high-end drug pushers in a buy-bust operation in Alabang. One of the suspects was Rajiv Gidwani, an Indian, whose alleged clients include a model, actor and politician.

Gidwani and his alleged accomplice Jeremiah Carillo are suspected of selling kush (a high-grade type of marijuana) and ecstasy. 

De Lima said she is alarmed at Gidwani's alleged clientele.

“Kung matapang talaga si Duterte, bakit mukhang naduduwag siyang panagutin ang tunay at maimpluwensyang drug users at pushers? Bakit laging mahihirap lang ang biktima at tinatarget ng kanilang gyera laban sa droga?” De Lima asked.

She also asked Duterte to reassess his administration's war on drugs.

“He (Duterte) should not allow suspected drug offenders—regardless of his/her social class or his/her relationship to him— to evade justice and go unpunished, the same way that he should not allow suspected offenders to get killed without giving them a day in the court,” De Lima said.

The senator is detained inside Camp Crame in Quezon City since February 2017 for her supposed involvement in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison during her stint as Justice secretary. De Lima has denied she is involved in any illegal drug activity. —KG, GMA News

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