Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 3) — A mayor in Metro Manila on Wednesday recounted his city’s anti-drug achievements after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to send him to jail if the city is not rid of drugs in a month.
“We deeply appreciate the President’s concern about the drug situation here in Malabon City but our record speaks for itself,” Malabon City Mayor Antolin “Lenlen” Oreta said in a statement.
He cited data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which takes lead role in the government’s war on drugs. He said nine out of 21 barangays in Malabon or 40 percent have been declared “drug-cleared,” adding that Malabon was named the “city with the highest number of anti-illegal drug programs in the whole of Metro Manila.”
“PDEA can attest to the fact that Malabonians do not and will never tolerate drug abuse,” he said, adding that the goal is for Malabon to be one of the first drug-cleared cities in Metro Manila.
Oreta issued the statement after the President gave him a month to “clean up” the city’s drug problem. “Mayor, linisin mo ang Malabon mo. Bigyan kita isang buwan. Pag hindi, sabihin ko kay Ricky (Sandoval) sorry na lang ha… pahuli mo mayor ninyo. Itapon ko sa Manila Bay,” Duterte said during a campaign sortie of the ruling PDP-Laban party in Malabon Tuesday night.
[Translation: Mayor, clean up your Malabon. I give you a month. Otherwise, I will tell Ricky, I’m sorry, have your mayor arrested. I’ll throw him into Manila Bay.]
Ricky Sandoval is running for representative for the lone Malabon district under the President’s party. His wife, current Vice Mayor Jeannie Sandoval, was endorsed by the President in her mayoralty bid against Oreta, who is seeking reelection under the opposition Liberal Party.
In March 2018, PDEA and the Regional Peace and Order Council in Metro Manila acknowledged Malabon as the local government with the most number of anti-drug interventions, next to Quezon City. After a month, authorities dismantled in in the city a clandestine laboratory manufacturing the party drug ecstasy. PDEA said it was the first time it shut down an ecstasy lab.
READ: Duterte warns Malabon mayor: Clean up drug problem or face arrest
