Duterte says he does not lie -

By Ellen Tordesillas

I THOUGHT President Duterte had an epiphany when I read the news reports that he admitted his promise to solve the drug problem turned out as a “fiasco.”

He said it during the 45th anniversary of the National Economic and Development Authority Tuesday.

He said it in the course of enumerating his accomplishments as he continued basking on the 15 million votes that installed him in Malacañang:

“Because I carried or I am carrying now a very simple set of rules or messages. One, I said, I will try, I can only try to stop corruption. Second is, the problem of drugs has overwhelmed the Philippine fabrics of society, and this has to be controlled or stop altogether. Third is that, I would talk to all the enemies of the state, make peace with them, reach out a deal if possible. And fourth is that, I will allow the brightest financial managers of our country to help me run the economic side. “

He continued: “Lahat ho ‘yannagawakona. Pero ginagawako pa rin because it remains to be a problem. It is not a one thing time to solve it. Corruption remains and it will be even beyond my time. Drugs still abound by tonelada nadito at, you know, itong mga human rights they know…

Hindi naman --- every afternoon, tingnan mo sa TV Patrol. Lahat ‘yanpuro araw-araw seven, eight cases of killing, raping a six-month-old baby, killing the entire family. And that was the rule of the past even at a bigger scale before I became President. “

This is where he said about his anti-drug campaign being a “fiasco.”: “Now, I would tell you that I --- there was this promise which turned out to be a nightmare, a fiasco. Well, because when I was mayor, I made the promise --- ang mindset ko was Davao. And I maybe, naiveté, had something to do with that also.

“Sabi ko, in six months time, I will solve the problem of drugs. But that was based on the factual situation in Davao, numbers and all. But when I became President, nakita ko ‘yung magnitude, the dimension of the contamination at it run into millions, at maramingnamatay. “

What happens now that he himself admitted that he failed? 

I remember during the election campaign when he went to Laoag City, he made the declaration that he had repeated all throughout his campaign: ““If elected president, give me about three to six months I will get rid of corruption, drugs and criminality.”

He further said: “They say my timeline is ambitious, you know if I am already president, in the third month I am sitting there as president and I fail because nobody believes me, I really cannot do it even if you give me 10 years of rule.

“Eh mabuti magsibat na lang kayo, or ako. Kung hindi komagawa ‘yansatatlong buwan e ‘di ibigay ko nalang kay Bongbong (If I fail in three months, better leave the country or I will step down and give the presidency to Bongbong).”

Bongbong (former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.) didn’t win as president. Duterte’s three to six months has been extended to up to the end of his term.

It should be noted that early in his speech Duterte said, “Hindi ako nagbobo lang publiko eh. Alam mo kasi, it has always my article of faith in life that I do not lie because I do not have the obligation to anybody to lie. So why should I lie and keep on lying to cover the lie?”

At least there is one truth that he said: fiasco