Who kept Aquino in the dark and why?

More than three weeks after President Duterte assumed office, the media reported there have already been more than 300 killings related to illegal drugs.

Prior to that, the media reported that thousands of individuals have been surrendering to police and barangay officials, confessing that they were either pushers or users of banned substances; in San Fernando City, Pampanga, alone, some 8,000 people surrendered last Friday.

The events have opened the public’s eyes to two startling realities.
First, that people believe the Duterte administration is serious about its promise to fight illegal-drug syndicates.

Second, that the previous administration appears to have largely neglected the country’s problem of illegal-drugs proliferation, or simply lacked the ability and the will to address this menace head on.

Because of this, drug syndicates appear to have prospered well under the previous administration, giving President Duterte one more giant mess left by former President Noynoy Aquino to clean up.

Now, the public is forced to ask questions. First, did Aquino know the magnitude of this problem? If yes, why was there no decisive action on the part of his administration to clip it? If no, who kept him in the dark and why?

The unfolding picture of the drug menace in the country has more doubt on that much-disdained “tuwid na daan” slogan. The public asks: How can drug lords and syndicates prosper under a regime that was supposed to be dedicated to the principles of moral righteousness?

Isn’t the corruption and slaughter of our young by illegal drugs just as immoral as the other acts that the Aquino administration prosecuted in the name of righteousness?
What is even more baffling is that, for a time, the government agency primarily tasked to battle criminality – the Philippine National Police (PNP) – was headed by a man highly trusted by Aquino himself: sacked police chief Alan Purisima.

Why didn’t Aquino tell Purisima to do for his administration what the President has tasked new PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to accomplish?

Was Aquino more interested in the applause of the international community than the well-being and safety of his own people? Was this why he opted to use Purisima in that ill-fated operation against minor international terrorists rather than to hunt down drug syndicates preying on our young?

The magnitude of the drug menace unraveling before the public eye today also triggered worried questions over claims by the past administration regarding its campaign against criminality.

It will be recalled the defeated Aquino presidential bet Mar Roxas was his interior secretary – the very person in charge of the national police force. During the campaign season, Roxas rattled off a lot of figures, claiming much success on behalf of his “lambat-sibat” operations.

The question is, if the operations were as successful as Roxas claimed them to be, what criminals did he really net? Were they merely the petty kind, such as snatchers and robbers? Did Roxas actually confront the big criminal elements?

If yes, then why the mess left behind and that now requires a lot of cleaning up by the administration ?

Meanwhile, the public eye is also on new Transportation Secretary Art Tugade. His recent pronouncements on how he plans to address the traffic problem in major urban areas have generated much interest.

Tugade is the former president and Chief Executive Officer of Clark Development Corporation, an attached agency of the government-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority under former President Aquino.

He founded Perry’s Realty, Perry’s Holding Corporation, Perry’s Group of Companies, which include Transglobal Equipment Leasing, Perry’s Technology, ATP Travel, Perryome, Transglobal Trucking and Transglobal Consolidators, Inc.

Tugade also appears to have sparked hope that the suffering of motorists and commuters under the Aquino administration might finally come to an end.

Interestingly, transportation was another major national concern that defeated presidential aspirant Roxas was tasked to attend to by his principal, Aquino.

When the mess left behind by Aquino in the crime and transportation fronts has been significantly cleaned up, would the public appreciate even more that it is President Duterte and not Roxas who is now running the country?

Just asking.