PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte seeks an end to drugs in three years. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte made a strong appeal for help from the public to fulfill his promise to end the narcotics scourge while vowing no let-up on the battle.

“Let’s end this problem. God willing, if I’m still here for the next three years, I will fight to the end,” the Chief Executive said when he graced the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino campaign sortie held at the Alonte Sports Center in Biñan, Laguna.

“I really hate drugs. It creates a social dysfunction from one family to another. How many families were destroyed because of drugs? Once it hits you, you are useless. You no longer work, you just sit in one corner,” he added.

This is the reason, the Chief Executive said, he is urging the public to elect into office candidates who will genuinely serve the country and put the people’s best interest first when they cast their votes in the May midterm polls.

“Many are ambitious. There are those who want to get rich. Many wanted to have it all, the easy way,” Mr. Duterte stressed.

He added voters must be vigilant and discerning when they cast their votes as there are those who are using “shabu money” in their campaign.

The President reminded them to choose those who will advance his administration’s policies, especially the campaign on illegal drugs.

“Shabu money – no one believed me. They thought I was just trying to scare everybody. Many mayors and other politicians have already been killed because of drugs but many still didn’t learn their lesson,” he quipped.

“Please, don’t destroy my country. If you destroy my country, I will destroy you,” the Chief Executive added.

Mr. Duterte has cautioned back in November 2018 about money generated from the illegal drug trade to potentially influence the coming elections.

He did not expound on the matter, but stressed that he will mobilize all law enforcement agencies and all government machinery to ensure drug syndicates will not taint the midterm polls.

After promising to ignore Sen. Leila de Lima and her criticisms against the President, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo reignited a word war with the detained senator, saying her senses have flown to the cuckoo’s nest.

The Palace criticized her “false narrative” on the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

The official described as irrelevant De Lima’s comment that the Duterte administration’s ambitious infrastructure projects were “grossly inefficient.”

“A detained senator from the opposition has described the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program as ‘grossly inefficient,’ among other nonsensical descriptives and false narratives,” Panelo said in a statement.

“As promised, we will ignore her rantings as her senses apparently. We will just watch her in amusement as she cantankerously pontificates like a headless chicken running berserk,” he added.

De Lima, from her detention cell in Camp Crame, criticized the government’s “Build, Build, Build” initiative through her regular “dispatches.”

Panelo said De Lima’s latest barbs have “polluted the air from the usual suspects disparaging the administration’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.”

Although there have been delays in the implementation and completion of infrastructure projects, the spokesman reiterated Mr. Duterte is “facing the said obstacles squarely and has started removing them in accordance with the Constitution.”

Panelo also assured that these concerns are being addressed and that “many of our grandiose infrastructure initiatives have commenced” and that the Executive branch will exert all efforts to ensure it delivers on its promise.

“There have been delays in the commencement of the projects owing to the bureaucratic rigmarole caused by the legal restraints and resort to judicial remedies by the losing bidders, to which the President has expressed his exasperation and frustration,” Panelo said.

“While detractors of this administration consistently deliberate on how to mudsling the President’s achievements, we remain focused on how to improve the lives of our countrymen through projects that will bring about genuine change for the nation,” he added.