By Junex Doronio

MANILA — Piqued that he is hooked to an “addictive” Fentanyl, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has dared President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. that they both undergo a drug test in public at the same time at the Rizal Park, popularly known as the Luneta.

“Set it in Luneta Park, magpakuha siya ng dugo doon [from] independent entity or doctor. Magpakuha rin ako, sige pati ako. Pakuha siya ng blood test,” Duterte said in a press conference in Davao City on Tuesday (30 January 2024).

The feisty ex-president also alleged that a Cabinet official who he did not identify also used cocaine with Marcos Jr. and insisted that Marcos was on the watchlist of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

However, PDEA on Monday (29 January 2024) belied FPRRD’s accusation.

“The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency categorically states that President Ferdinand R Marcos, Jr is not on its watch list, contrary to the statement of former President Rodrigo Duterte, claiming that ‘when he was the Mayor of Davao, he was shown evidence by PDEA that in the list, the name of the president was there,” the agency said in a statement.

It added that Marcos Jr. was never in the agency’s National Drug Information System (NDIS) since PDEA’s “activation” in 2002.

“I think it’s the fentanyl,” Marcos Jr. told reporters shortly before leaving for Vietnam last Monday when asked to comment on Duterte’s claims that the incumbent Chief Executive is a drug addict.

 PBBM said Duterte “has been taking the drug for a very long time now…after five, six years, it has to affect him.”

(el Amigo/MNM)