Crime-Busting Philippine Mayor In Mexican Standoff With Drug Lords, Like Trump Versus El Chapo
Crime-busting Philippine Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has the elimination of “local El Chapos” as a major objective in his run for the presidency of his country. The reference to Mexican drug lord and Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is coincidental with the war of words going on between United States billionaire Donald Trump and Guzman who was recaptured on January 8, 2016 six months after escaping from prison.
With some 92 percent of barangays or barrios in Metro Manila drug-infested, the crime-busting Philippine mayor minced no words about the situation that has left the whole country in a state of siege. In a press statement, 70-year-old Duterte stressed the seriousness of a problem he plans to eradicate within three to six months of his election as president.
“I will not allow our country to become Asia’s Mexico. We will not become a narco-state.”
Meanwhile, according to CBC, Twitter has been fascinated by the relationship between Trump, 69, and Guzman, 58, since at least July 2015, the real estate billionaire exchanging barbs with the Mexican drug kingpin alluded to negatively by the crime-busting Philippine Mayor. Twitter users are reportedly wondering how Guzman’s online “feud” with Trump will play out now that he’s back in custody.
“Many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it. But these people are here legally, and are severely hurt by those coming in illegally. I am proud to say that I know many hard working Mexicans—many of them are working for and with me…and, just like our country, my organization is better for it.”
CBC recalled that Guzman’s son allegedly responded to Trump with profanity and threats against his life. The Twitter threats were taken by Trump seriously enough to have the Federal Bureau of Investigation check them out. He updated Virginia reporters on his response to the crime-busting Philippine Mayor’s bogeyman.
“We have officials all over the place, including right outside hanging out in trees. Law enforcement is working very hard right now on the situation here.”
A threatening tweet with the username @ElChap0Guzman warned that if Trump kept “screwing with us” he would “eat his words.” Cuban-American rapper Pitbull picked up on the threat by telling Trump to “Watch out for El Chapo” while onstage at a July Univision award show. Latin American news network teleSUR reported in October that a $100 million bounty was placed on Trump’s head by Guzman, the crime-busting Philippine Mayor’s persona-non-grata.
Trump’s tweet after Guzman escaped from prison, went like this.
“Can you envision Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton negotiating with ‘El Chapo’, the Mexican drug lord who escaped from prison? Trump, however, would kick his ass!” @realDonaldTrump
“Why should I be afraid? They’re the bad ones, I’m the one telling them this is the government, they should stand down.”
According to ABS-CBN News, Duterte does not condone extrajudicial killings in the sense of a perpetrator with hands tied behind him, and kneeling. The crime-busting Philippine mayor voiced his sentiments mostly in Tagalog.
“People don’t believe, even the Human Rights Commission, that these criminals have weapons. Most of them, if not all, when you come down to it, are certainly armed, firing back. And that is really the insanity caused by drugs. So I tell the police, ‘Let them shoot back.’ Please, criminal, fight back so we can kill you already.”
According to Philstar, the power of the drug lords is such that those detained by the National Bureau of Investigation (N.B.I.) enjoy luxurious lifestyles and continue their drug trade while incarcerated. No amount of crime-busting has deterred them. What Philippine Mayor Duterte has done to make his Davao the fifth safest city in the world, is being considered by the rest of the Philippines as a way to break the Mexican standoff.
[Photo via Facebook]
