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Thursday, June 19, 2003
Police given 3 months to crush drug rings
By She Caguimbal-Torres
MANILA -- President Arroyo on Wednesday ordered law enforcement units to neutralize drug lords and others involved in the illegal trade, including their patrons, in three months.
Arroyo met in Malacaņang with agencies involved in the anti-drug campaign, led by the PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The deadline came amid warnings that the country has become a favorite transshipment point for foreign drug cartels.
Arroyo said she would personally monitor the campaign and told law enforcement agencies she wanted immediate "strategic results."
"This means the neutralization of the top syndicates and the arrest of the leaders -- a focused campaign against drug pushers, dealers and patrons in the government, and especially those in uniforms and a stop in the transnational smuggling of drugs through our shores," Arroyo said in a statement.
She added that "drug lords, however high in the corridors of powers they may be, must be exposed or hunted down like common criminals as they are."
She will be allotting P1 billion from lottery proceeds to finance the campaign, which Lina said would be headed by a special anti-drug task force that would begin by dismantling clandestine laboratories manufacturing methamphetamine hydrochloride, or "ice", which is readily available on Manila streets.
She said the amount is more than what Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra used to crush the drug syndicates in his country in three months.
"I have asked, therefore, the drug enforcement agencies to do a Thaksin in about three months time," she said.
She also asked for support from the public, the media and even the religious groups under the National Ecumenical Consultative Committee (Neccom).
Anti-drug rally
To officially launch the national anti-drug campaign, Arroyo approved an anti-drug rally on June 25. She also asked the ecumenical group to provide inputs.
PDEA director general Anselmo Avenido has presented a three-month National Anti-Drug Program of Action aimed at neutralizing drug lords and syndicates, including pushers at the street levels.
Avenido said PDEA would also strengthen its campaign to dismantle shabu laboratories and destroy marijuana plantations throughout the country.
PDEA said there are 3.4 million drug users in the country. It has identified at least 13 transnational drug syndicates and 175 local drug rings operating in the country, and some 45,000 pushers.
Avenido said PDEA is targeting to neutralize in three months a third or 62 out of the 175 local drug syndicates.
He said the anti-drug campaign has tightened the drugs supply, as shown by an increase in the price of shabu from P2,000 per gram to P5,000 per gram.
"There are still places with around P2,000 but the quality of shabu is no longer assured. In fact, nag-aaway na ang seller at buyer dahil fake ang nabibili nila. That means na nabawasan na ang supply sa market," he added.
For the past 10 months, he said the PDEA, NBI, PNP and other law enforcement agencies have seized P5 billion worth of drugs and laboratory equipment and arrested 6,700 drug pushers and traffickers.
'Creeping threat'
PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said drug users in the PNP number only less than 1 per cent and those found positive for drug use are undergoing summary dismissal proceedings.
Lina said 25 per cent of inmates are charged with violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act (RA 9165), which provide that possession of 10 grams of shabu is already non-bailable.
As a result, Lina said, jails are becoming even more crowded.
Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, head of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), reiterated that narcopolitics is a "creeping threat" that is worse than the New People's Army or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"Itong threat na ito mahirap makita saka patago ang influence. With drug money, they can even buy their own radio stations, they can buy newspapers, they can buy columnists, they can buy reporters," Corpus said.
Corpus cited the case of Mayor Ronnie Mitra of Panukulan, Quezon, who was nabbed while escorting 350 kilos of drugs.
He said the ISAFP is monitoring a national-level official who was able to buy media influence. He laughed out loud when asked whether it is a separate case from Sen. Panfilo Lacson, whom he accused of involvement in the kidnapping and drug-trafficking trade.
Senator Robert Barbers, a former police officer, noted that about 37 foreigners were jailed for drug trafficking in the Philippines last year, many of them Chinese nationals.
Barbers, quoting data his office compiled independently, said at least 11 transnational drug syndicates were operating in the Philippines, with only one so far successfully neutralized by the police.
Barbers urged authorities to "confront this dilemma hammer and tongs using all means available."
"International drug syndicates will not have the guts and courage to pursue their business in the country if they perceive that we are determined in putting an end to their nefarious activities," said Barbers, who is chair of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs. Sunnex Luzon
(June 19, 2003 issue)
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