mythoughtatmn

[mythoughtatmn]

I will never post this publicly out of respect for my family, kababatas and neighbors.

I grew up in Davao City, sa Boulevard. Which even Tatay Digong calls "Boulevard of broken dreams." Why? Because this used to be the central trade for drugs in the city.

At an early age, I was already exposed to drugs and addicts. I know them by face, I know them by name. They were my family, they were my neighbors.

We used to have a sari sari store. Remember how lighters were tied or hanged for easy access for people to light up the cigs they bought? In broad daylight, a pusher would slightly burn his merchandise to make sure it would emit smoke. I heard that there were fake drugs going around, and it's definitely bad for business. Some stores would even sell foil to users. And there was the business of making your house a "kampo" where users can use what they bought and pay the owner of the house. It was a thriving industry for the slum dwellers.

You need only stand at a designated spot and someone will readily approach you to sell you drugs. A cousin from the province mistakenly stood at one of those spots, was offered, refused profusely, and never came back.

Kids as young as 12-13 were already using drugs because it was normal. At some point, two of my cousins ended up in one session surprising each other. One claims doing it to slim down, one did it because of her peers. Unknowingly, I became a transporter. Because who would suspect two kids riding a taxi, right?

If that wasn't grim enough, I also witnessed deaths and violence. He was my playmate's father. He got shot right in the head- in broad daylight. He was known as a "rising" big time supplier. He was the only man in his family. He all had daughters, and his daughters all had daughters too. There was a Japanese guy too that married a Pinay who lived there because he couldn't go back to his own country. Also dabbled in drugs. One day, he just disappeared along with his Pinay wife. The family of the Pinay is still waiting for her to come back.

First, a list appears. Giving people on the list a grace period to leave the city. Then raids ensue, again, in broad daylight. I always wonder why they never do it at night like in movies? Then the chain of deaths. For a while the barangay would feel like a ghost town... But the pushers will always come back. And it was always a kind of cycle.

But Duterte never stopped until he cleaned the city, he cleaned our barangay, our neighborhood. Even the delinquents were sweeped off, in jail or rehab.

I knew them by face, I knew them by name. Their families knew them and their doings, they cried for their deaths and moved on. They knew the faults and what was needed to be paid off. I never heard the families cried wolf.

You think Duterte's War on Drugs was too much? I see my neighbors now still in the laylayan, because drugs have destroyed their future directly and indirectly.

For the past decades, there have been no more weekly raids, no more killings at high noon, no more gang riots.. I hope I could say no more drugs but that would be untrue. From people smoking in jeepneys, to smoke free Davao City, from hundreds being rushed to hospitals in New Year, to zero casualties every year, and I can go on and on and on....