Lawmakers on Tuesday were urged to rally behind President Rodrigo Duterte’s reinvigorated war against illicit drugs and official corruption, in keeping with his fresh commitment to protect Filipino lives and public resources.
Reacting to the President’s State of the Nation Address, Rep. LRay Villafuerte of Camarines Sur also said that with the President’s support for the just-completed work of the Consultative Commission (Con-Com), there is more reason now for the executive and legislative departments to quickly launch a nationwide information campaign on the proposed switch to a federal system of government.
At the same time, Villafuerte appealed to all concerned government agencies to heed the President’s call for the speedier delivery of public services by strictly implementing in their respective offices the provisions of the Ease of Doing Business Law.
“The President has given his marching orders to all concerned into his third year in office,” Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations and local government, said.
Opposition and Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. welcomed the President’s resolve to upgrade the country’s telecommunications services by bringing in a third market participant.
“We are counting on the third player to provide the effective market competition needed to improve public access to reliable, high-speed internet services,” said Campos, author of a bill seeking to classify broadband as a basic telecommunications service.
Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the President’s Sona was “worth waiting for,” after it was delayed by more than an hour by a leadership change in the House.
Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay said the President “delivered a fantastic Sona.”
Police on Tuesday announced that they had seized P7.4 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as shabu, following the arrest of a notorious drug trafficker operating in Manila and Pasay City.
The operation came a day after Duterte promised that he government’s campaign against drugs will not stop and would be “relentless and chilling.”
NCRPO chief Guillermo Eleazar identified the suspect as Bryan Dudley, who uses an alias Bayan Taba, a 24-year-old and resident of 814 De Guzman Street, Malibay, Pasay City.
Eleazar said his men in close coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Anonas Police Station in Quezon City arrested Dudley during a buy-bust operation along University Street corner Commonwealth Avenue in Barangay San Vicente, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City around 3:30 am Tuesday.
Dudley was arrested while in the act of selling 500 grams of shabu to an undercover agent subsequently, another six plastic packs of shabu weighing six hundred grams were also found in his possession, said Eleazar.
Also found in Dudley’s possession was the bundle of marked money equivalent to P400,000 used in the buy-bust operation.
Eleazar said Dudley is responsible for drug trafficking activities operating in the areas of Pasay City, Manila and other areas in Metro Manila.
The Department of Health, meanwhile, said a P878 million rehabilitation facility will rise on a five-hectare lot in Barangay Osorio, Trece Martires City, Cavite in line with the government’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.
DoH Regional Director Eduardo C. Janairo noted that once the facility, which will be funded by Japan, is operational in 2020, it will improve the care and treatment of recovering drug addicts. With Joel E. Zurbano and Macon Ramos-Araneta