Drug cartels pay governors, mayors, judges, generals

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Just saw at the TV evening news the danger of taking more than 500 milligram daily of Glutathione Whitening Capsule for one to have a fairer skin. Tatama-an daw ang inyong mga kidney, thyroid, at iba-ibang parts ng katawan ninyo, delikado daw sa health niyo sabi ng Bureau of Food & Drug (BFAD). Mabuti na lang di ako nag gu-Gluthathione tuwalya at bato (na napulot ko sa illegal quarry sa paanan ng Mt. Hibok-Hibok) lang pinaghihilod ko pumuputi na ako.

 A big time honcho of a drug cartel who bribes government officials in
many parts of the world is arrested by soldiers in this file photo from
www.mirror.co.uk.

Aanhin mo ang pagiging maputi for several years where after that nasa dialysis and kidney centers na kayo dahil nasira na ang kidney ninyo. It was not worth it dahil papatayin o dudugu-in ka lang sa gastos  dahil sa ganyang  kahibangan na gusto ninyong mag mukhang Amerkano kahit na kamukha ninyo si singer Black Jack o ang komedyanteng Whitney Tyson.

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Andre Berto would be the opponent of Floyd Mayweather, Jr on his 49th fight on September. Although Berto has 30 wins, 3 loses, 0 draw, and 23 knocked out (KO) ratio, he was defeated by Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero. The last two pugs were dominated and defeated by Floyd. This will be a ho-hum fight that Mayweather will win. If Mayweather wants to be at the levels of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, he should be fighting the rugged and hard punching Danny Garcia , K.O artist Keith Thurman, and the very dangerous Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin in a catch weight.

 How about Manny Pacquiao? Son of a gun, forget the rematch maraming ng na holdup diyan and the guy is too busy waiting for God to call him whether he runs for Senator or Governor in the Philippines.

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After reading my column “Anatomy of Illegal Drugs in P’sinan”, Supt. Benjie Ariola, the honcho of the Philippine National Police’ Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Group (PAIDSOTG) in the 3 million province, shared to me how illegal drugs particularly shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride entered Pangasinan by using the four corridors in the towns of Infanta, Mangatarem, Rosales and Alaminos City and how the police deal with the pushers. Details on Benjie’s narration would be in my next column.

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I just watched the documentary at You Tube how methamphetamine hydrochloride or meth had been peddled from Mexico's Nuevo Laredo to Laredo, Texas, U.S.A by the drug cartel. In Mexico the worth of one kilo meth is U.S$ 2 thousand or Php 88 thousand, pag dating sa border it is already U.S $5 thousand or Php 220 thousand, pag dating sa burgeoning U.S Mainland it is worth U.S $ 20 thousand or Php 800 thousand.

On that video drug cartels paid millions of dollars the Mexican governors, mayors, judges, generals down to the military and police foot soldiers. To Philippine law enforcement, that's narco-politics at its finish!

That’s why Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump chastised in the last Friday’s presidential wannabes debate the leaders in America as stupid.

“Our leaders are stupid. Our politicians are stupid,” Trump said when asked about his previous claims that Mexico was sending its “rapists” and “drug dealers” into America.

“The Mexican government is “much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning”, Trump continued. “And they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them.”

Are the leaders in the Philippines stupid, too in the fight against illegal drugs that have been victimizing Filipinos as shown by the everyday’s news that bombarded us?

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I posed to National Irrigation Administration’s Regional Manager John Celeste if it is still Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala who signed the final documents in the affairs of the irrigation agency even I saw at this office the photo of former Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan?

Celeste told me to look at the logo at his table where the Office of the President (O.P) was inscribed.

“It was superseded (from DA to OP) through an executive order signed by President (Benigno) Aquino,” he said.

He said that aside from NIA, offices like National Food Authority, the Philippine Coconut Authority and the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority are now under the watch of Pangilinan – Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization Secretary.

“But NIA was created under a Republic Act (3601 on 22 June 1963), would an Executive Order 175 suffice for the O.P to just snatched out NIA from D.A and put it under the O.P?” I asked.

Celeste, whom I visited at Davao City when he was the regional top boss in Region 11, told me that NIA originally belonged to the Department of Public Works & Highway (DPWH) and not D.A.

He explained that former President Fidel V. Ramos through an E.O (No. 22) attached it at D.A from the DPWH.

According to the overview of NIA at its website: “...It was created under Republic Act (RA) 3601 on 22 June 1963. Its charter was amended by Presidential Decree (PD) 552 on 11 September 1974 and PD 1702 on 17 July 1980. NIA's forerunner was the Irrigation Division of the defunct Bureau of Public Works. NIA was placed under the Office of the President (OP) upon its creation. It was attached to the Department of Public Works, Transportation, and Communication under PD No.1, dated 23 September 1972. The issuance also integrated all irrigation activities under the Agency. The Administrative Code of 1987, dated 25 July 1987, attached NIA to both the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and Department of Agriculture (DA). But NIA remained attached to DPWH. It was transferred to OP pursuant to Executive Order No. 22, dated 14 September 1992. Then, it was attached to DA under Administrative Order No. 17, dated 14 October 1992”.

So my posed to Celeste about why an E.O of President Aquino last year superseded R.A 3601, the statements from the “Overview” had explained it, excerpts: “Its charter was amended by Presidential Decree (PD) 552 on 11 September 1974 and PD 1702 on 17 July 1980”.

 It means those PDs Dictator Ferdinand Marcos had signed into laws were equivalent to RA unless changed by Congress according to laws and Supreme Court decisions I learned while reading the newspaper’s wrap of the “daing” I bought from the market.

 Remember, during that time Marcos was too powerful he usurped too the functions of the legislative and judiciary. So the decision of President Aquino to whisk-out the four agencies from D.A to O.P was based on PD 552 of Marcos and not RA 3601.

“But many people in NIA flirted in the idea that NIA would someday be returned to its mother department DPWH because many of them believed that the agency and DPWH jibe with each other since most of the workers there are engineers unlike at the D.A,” Celeste told me.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)