Drug addicts and Abu Sayyaf bandits

A most shocking news item (“Duterte: Abu Sayyaf are not criminals,” Inquirer.net, 7/8/16) quoted President as saying that the Abu Sayyaf bandits are committing atrocities merely “out of desperation” and “failed promises” to the al-Qaida-linked separatist group seeking the establishment of an independent Islamic state in Mindanao, and that they really are “not criminals.”

For the information of those who were born only yesterday, those bandits kidnap innocent people for ransom amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos; if the price is not “right,” they  behead their hostages. What’s Duterte talking about? I had to read and reread the news item several times to be sure I didn’t miss anything. We really need to ask the reporter, Julianne Love de Jesus, if she got it right. But never mind.

Well, drug users and pushers are also driven to “desperation.” Addiction is a disease beyond their control. And for them, all “promises” for a better world may have “failed,” too.  Frustrated, they seek escape to a world of make-believe and get “high” to forget the troubles of the real world. If they rape or murder and cut innocent people to pieces, they really are not criminals—just out of their freaking minds. So why kill them?

I don’t know about you, but I’m seriously beginning to have some doubts about our new president. God help us!

—ROMANO MORANO MONTENEGRO, [email protected]