Data show worse borrower and better shabu destroyer
“Sixteen trillion pesos ang utang ng Pilipinas, at ‘yan ay mamanahin ng future generations, pero bakit hindi natin nakikita?” VP Sara Duterte taunted President Bongbong Marcos.
BBM’s spokeswoman rebutted, “Ang P16 trillion ay kabuuang utang ng gobyerno mula pa mga nakaraang administrasyon. Ang administrasyon ni Pangulong Duterte ang may pinaka-mataas na naging utang na umabot ng P12.79 trillion as of June 2022. Ang solong utang ng administrasyong Duterte ay P6.84 trillion.”
P6.84 trillion ÷ 6 years = P1.13 trillion that Duterte borrowed per year.
Numbers don’t lie.
But let’s complete the story.
Government’s present debt is P16.75 trillion as of April 2025, says the Bureau of Treasury.
Meaning, BBM borrowed P3.96 trillion in three years.
P3.96 trillion ÷ 3 years = P1.32 trillion that BBM borrowed per year.
That’s P190 billion more per year borrowed by BBM compared to Duterte. Doesn’t that make BBM a more frantic borrower?
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BBM bragged that his admin seized more shabu in his first three years compared to Duterte’s. That’s without the latter’s bloodbath.
BBM’s proof: P62 billion worth of the narcotics nabbed from July 1, 2022 to June 24, 2025, or 155 weeks.
His advisers should whisper to BBM not to use peso values. Why? Because it’s misleading.
Shabu value fluctuates based on demand and supply per locale. If demand is high and supply is low in Metro Manila, then the value per one-gram sachet can hit up to P7,000. If demand is low and supply is high in Bicol, then it can drop to P6,000.
Better to report volume, not value, of interdictions. To illustrate:
• Under BBM, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated 7,782.26 kilos of shabu as of April 30, 2025.
• Add to that the 1,304.604 kilos found floating off Luzon’s west coasts and turned over by fishermen this June.
• Total haul under BBM: 9,086.864 kilos in 155 weeks.
• That’s more than double the 4,409.69 kilos confiscated by PDEA under Duterte from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019, 156 weeks.
• PDEA valued the interdictions under Duterte at P25.99 billion, or a street value of P5,893.84 per one-gram sachet.
• PDEA’s present P62-billion valuation of the 9,086.864 kilos under BBM is P6,823.04 per sachet.
Kudos to PDEA and its operating arms PNP, AFP, NBI, Customs and Coastguard for netting more shabu without killing 6,252 “nanlaban” during “tokhang.”
But there’s still lots of work to do. Here’s why:
In November 2019, PNP Drug Enforcement Group Gen. Romeo Caramat said there were three million hardcore addicts. Each snorted one gram of shabu per week. That’s three million grams or 3,000 kilos per week.
Meaning, Duterte’s PDEA’s record of 4,409.69 kilos confiscated in 156 weeks was dismal. It was the shabu consumption for only one-and-a-half weeks.
The number of addicts under BBM’s admin is likely still three million. There has been no massive rehab nor fear of being “salvaged.”
That makes BBM’s PDEA’s 9,086.864 kilos in 155 weeks look dismal too. It’s only three weeks’ consumption.
To wipe out shabu PDEA must seize and destroy 3,000 kilos a week.
On May 31, 2022, a month before Duterte stepped down, PDEA reported a six-year shabu haul of 11,911.44 kilos.
BBM’s PDEA should not be content with merely doubling that in six years or 313 weeks. It should net 939,000 kilos of that highly addictive synthetic substance.
The public must be warned: one can get hooked on shabu instantly, on the first snort. That’s if you have a high volume of dopamine in the body – which is natural in one of every four persons.
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Still on numbers, Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte taunted BBM for appointing Nicolas Torre, “a mere two-star general,” as PNP chief.
Torre rebutted, “Let’s rewind to the presidency of his father Rody Duterte…whose first PNP chief was a one-star general (Bato Dela Rosa), who automatically became four-star.”
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