EDITORIAL — It makes him look bad as well

Speaking during a rally against charter change in Davao City, former president Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. calling him an addict.

“We have a drug addict for a president. When I was president, the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) showed me evidence. Your name was on their list. I didn’t want to say because we are friends,” he said.

Not to take things lying down, the president threw back the same accusations at the former president, saying he uses fentanyl.

“It is highly addictive and it has very serious side effects. And PRRD has been taking the drug for a very long time now. When was the last time he told us that he was taking fentanyl?” the president said.

It’s worth mentioning that as of this writing, none of the claims of either have been substantiated.

If former president Duterte was hoping his drug accusations would make President Marcos look bad then congratulations, he did it. However, he isn’t alone in this because it also makes him look bad as well.

In saying what he did, former president Duterte infers that he knew that Marcos used drugs --if this was indeed true-- but that he chose to ignore this fact even as he professed to “hate drugs” all throughout his term.

That would show his insincerity and hypocrisy in his supposed war against drugs and his willingness to turn a blind eye to drug use just because someone was a “friend”. As the then president it was his duty to make sure all laws of the land are followed and all legislators up to their task.

It also leads some of us to ask, if he was willing to ignore someone’s behavior just because he was a friend, what else was he willing to ignore for the sake of friendship? Graft? Corruption? Murder? Greed? Plunder?

We have to remember that he had more than just a few “friends” in top positions during his term.