Former President and current Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada on Tuesday called on his fellow mayors to continue supporting President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, to put an end to what he described as “a billion-peso criminal industry.”
Estrada believes local chief executives have a big role to play in fighting the drug crisis, especially in keeping the youth away from its influence.
“It is vital that we extend our utmost support to the Duterte administration’s sustained efforts to put an end to this crisis, once and for all,” Estrada told the 1,400 members of the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines during the opening of the group’s 2017 General Assembly, which the city is hosting, at the Manila Hotel.
“As mayors, we have a big role to play in eliminating this crisis. We should give our all to save the youth, our children, from its influence, and at the same time putting to jail all drug traffickers and drug lords and destroying their capability to manufacture and sell drugs,” he added.
A former mayor of San Juan, now a city, for 17 years, Estrada said local government officials should stand behind Duterte, whom he said has made it his foremost mission “to rid our nation of the scourge of drugs, and those who have made it a billion-peso criminal industry.”
“This is a war we must all fight to win,” Estrada emphasized.
In the capital city, Estrada told the LMP members the city government is redoubling its efforts to rid Manila of the menace of illegal drugs.
These include the reactivation of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education or DARE, a school-based program where police officers visit public elementary schools to teach students how to avoid drugs and other vices, he added.
DARE was Estrada’s personal advocacy when he was Vice President from 1992 to 1998.
“For the sake of the communities we serve, and for the next generation of Filipinos, we must all work to win the war against drugs and thereby preserve the stability and security of our communities and our country,” Estrada told his fellow mayors.