{"id":79638,"date":"2016-08-07T07:50:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T11:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=79638"},"modified":"2016-08-07T07:50:33","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T11:50:33","slug":"former-cebu-city-mayor-denies-drug-coddler-ready-face-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/08\/07\/former-cebu-city-mayor-denies-drug-coddler-ready-face-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Cebu City mayor denies he is a drug coddler, ready to face probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Former<\/a>
Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama was among the drug coddlers named by President Rodrigo Duterte. (Facebook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CEBU CITY \u2013 Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama on Sunday denied he is a drug addict, a drug pusher or a drug coddler.<\/p>\n

Rama, who lost to Mayor Tomas Osmena in the May 9 elections, was among the drug coddlers named by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in his early Sunday dawn speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very much saddened about what the president uttered. In my own view, it\u2019s very much untrue. I am not a drug addict. The more I can\u2019t be a pusher, worse a drug protector,\u201d he said in a press conference at the Rama Compound in Cebu City Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho I am to protect a drug lord? I don\u2019t even have much control of the chief of police and the regional director when I was mayor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rama, who served as Cebu City mayor from 2010 to 2016, said he will present himself for investigation to prove that he\u2019s never a drug coddler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very much eager to undergo an investigation to clear air of doubts and so that justice and truth will prevail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rama said he was sound asleep when his family and friends knocked on the door of his room Sunday dawn to inform him that he was among those named as drug coddler by Duterte.<\/p>\n

Rama said he was hurt by the accusations, but he said he will continue to support President Duterte\u2019s campaign against illegal drugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CEBU CITY \u2013 Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama on Sunday denied he is a drug addict, a drug pusher …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":79639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[11883,11882,11881],"class_list":["post-79638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-former-cebu-mayor","tag-michael-rama","tag-rama","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}