Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Editorial: On losing the drug 'war'
ON the surface, the status of the long-drawn drug “war” already appears messy and worrisome.
With the contending parties using all sorts of “tactics” to gain the upperhand, the encounter becomes a battle of wits between hunter and hunted, with the latter often gaining the high ground through use of the best possible means and tools: bribery and money.
It is a war government is losing on two fronts.
Beneath the surface, the inner struggle is even much worse, with the moral sinews of a developing nation’s citizenry harshly placed at stake in the conflict.
How do you resolve the dilemma when the social and political vanguards of the citizen’s defense are no match to the wits of the drug lords, whose single weapon is bravado propped up with millions of drug money?
Before this “enemy,” citizens’ defense withers.
Warning
Sadly, recent developments indicate that the Philippine’s twin efforts—the pursuit of drug lords and drug sales, and the campaign against corruption---only show how puny our law enforcers are, and how weak-kneed the support group.
The case of the “Alabang Boys” is a tacit example.
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, for example, has issued the warning “in the wake of the controversy generated by the allegations of bribery in the dismissal by the Department of Justice of the drug case against the so-called Alabang Boys.”
This serious innuendos against our justice system brings to the fore what the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said, that “the country will be run (soon) by erring politicians if narco-politics is not checked.”
He said that if the matter is not stopped soon, then what he calls as the narco-politician “will run the country,” implying that possession of millions of drug money would give them political power and influence.
Narco-politicians
Such a prospect should stagger the minds and conscience of all well-meaning citizens and concerned leaders of this republic.
Narco-politicians assume the stance of honorable men supporting anti-drug advocacies, “but if you are going to look deeper, you are going to be dismayed because you’ll find out in the reports that they are involved in the (drug) trade in their areas.”
Indeed, if our republic will lose out in the long-drawn drug war, we can only have our leaders in the law enforcement sector, in the judicial system, and the corrupt political leaders to blame.
But pity should go to the hapless youth of this, our republic.
