Ah, yes. It’s that time of the week again where we recap the amazing ideas and wisdom of our favorite presidential legal adviser, Atty. Salvador ‘Sal’ Panelo.
This time, he wants to place all drug dependents in one island. Yes, all 3.7 million of them.
The best part? He talked about this at the opening ceremony of a drug rehabilitation center.
According to Panelo, drug users are “potential killers, potential rapists, potential robbers [and] potential thieves.”
“Ang tendency dito you will have to push kung mahirap ka… hindi ka makakakuha ng shabu kung hindi ka magbenta rin,” he said at the opening of a rehab facility inside the military base of the 401st Brigade of the Philippine Army in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur.
(The tendency here is that you’ll have to sell/push drugs if you’re poor… You can’t get shabu if you can’t sell any.)
Panelo also pointed out that the government cannot take care of all the drug users surrendering no matter where the rehab center is built. In the province of Agusan alone, over 8,000 drug users have surrenders in light of Oplan Tokhang.
In fact, the said rehab facility can only serve up to 60 people. It currently has 40 patients and “is being run by a certified substance abuse recovery expert and a psychologist,” according to an ABS-CBN News report.
Well… If Mr. Panelo is saying the government cannot sustain the care and rehabilitation of all the drug users in the country, then what’s the point of placing them all in one island?
Wouldn’t it cost more to transport 3.7 million people to an island? Not to mention the cost of bringing building materials, supplies, and basic necessities to an island facility…
But then again, we are not Mr. Panelo. Thank goodness.
