The next elections are still a good 11 months away but pronouncements by politicians underscore “election” in the phrase “election year” that describes the remaining months to May 2019.
Voters therefore cannot be blamed for being doubly critical of pronouncements made by politicians especially those who want to return to power.
One of them is Michael Rama, former mayor of Cebu City, who plans to contest the mayoralty of Tomas Osmeña.
Rama said the main platform of his upcoming campaign will be the eradication of illegal drugs, a problem with which — according to him — he has been unfairly implicated.
In fairness to the former mayor, President Rodrigo Duterte, who first tagged him as a player in narcopolitics is not the most credible of accusers.
The President in 2016 had released a list of “narco-judges” including seven who could hardly have been involved in any drug ring since they never handled drug cases in the first place.
The first judge on the list was in fact long dead, assassinated by an unidentified gunman in 2009.
Be that as it may, we hope Rama sees that a promise to end the plague of illegal narcotics in Cebu City might turn out to be a pipe dream in the mold of the President’s frustrated promise to wipe out illegal drugs in three to six months.
Rama is right. Fighting outlawed drugs is all about going after its sources. But can anyone collar big drug lords in three years? The President’s anti-drug crackdown will enter its third year soon without any end in sight.
One may argue that it could be easier to solve the problem in a city than in a country. But what would stop drugs proliferating beyond a city from entering it?
Further, if it were easy to win the battle against the drug trade in a city, why is a victory nowhere near in the President’s home city of Davao?
It was only fanciful, not intelligent, to be convinced by Duterte’s promise of solving a countrywide problem that he had not fixed in his home city.
It will be fanciful to believe a mayor’s promise to succeed where a President continues dismally to fail.
We wait to see evidence that today’s local leaders and the President can take strides in destroying the illegal drug trade at the source.