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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Arroyo is new anti-drug czar
MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the government's new anti-drug czar who will oversee the three-pronged fight against illegal drugs.
"I will temporarily act as the czar, or overseer of the war against illegal drugs," announced the President as she ordered an "all-out war, an unyielding and unrelenting war against illegal drugs and their devil merchants."
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
Arroyo, in a statement at the opening of the Cabinet meeting, said she will later turn over the job to the tandem of Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Vicente Sotto III and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director general Dionisio Santiago.
The President also proposed a "Trinity Against Illegal Drugs" as she called on local government units (LGUs), the academe, the church, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other sectors to intensify their anti-drug campaigns.
"The war shall be waged from three fronts, a Trinity Against Illegal Drugs. Law enforcement is the first component, judicial action is second, (and) policy making will make up the third front of this all-out war..." the President said.
Policy making, she added, shall be "a comprehensive policy consisting of prevention, enforcement, rehabilitation and after-care."
The President also said LGUs that can declare a barangay, municipality, city, and province a "drug-free zone" will be rewarded with development projects.
"A country awash with illegal drugs is a country compromised, its law-and-order institutions tainted and corrupted. It is in this context that the government should map out its all-out war (against illegal drugs)."
"No other criminal activity does a better and faster job of tearing apart the social and security fabric of a nation that the trade of illegal drugs," she told the Cabinet members.
She also said "governments that delay action against illegal drugs, or regard it as a routine police matter, do so at their own peril."
The President said the "Alabang Boys" case "should jolt us into action, not with temporizing and tentativeness but with resoluteness and the grit of a government fighting a just and moral war."
She pointed out that the forced leave imposed on officials and prosecutors of the Department of Justice (DOJ) shows how serious the government is in the fight against illegal drugs.
DDB chairman Sotto, in the same Cabinet meeting, said Arroyo will remain as the country's drug czar until the controversy is resolved by the report that she hopes would be finished by January 27.
He said the President formed an independent body to investigate the bribery allegations at the DOJ and PDEA for the release of the alleged high-profile drug dealers Richard Brodett, Jorge Joseph, and Joseph Tecson. The composition of the panel would be known this week.
Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, for his part, said the President directed all officials and agencies involved in handling illegal drug cases to "build up cases and stop the menace together." He said Arroyo will meet the DDB officials on January 22.
Dureza also said President Arroyo and Cabinet members have approved the immediate activation of all local drug abuse councils nationwide to coordinate with local officials to conduct random testing in all secondary and tertiary schools, including the vocational schools and work places.
He said the President wanted to see 24-hour action teams activated in her visit to the provinces. He said the President ordered everyone to stop their word war and "look for victories" instead.
Sotto said there will also be seminars for all regions and they will focus on prevention, rehabilitation and after-care. He also asked that solicitors be detailed to PDEA to help build up cases to prevent a repeat of the Alabang Boys case.
"This war can be won by the Filipino family if we concentrate on prevention-rehab that means the entire country would be helping the citizenry. The day we stop buying is the day they stop selling," he said.
He said the education department and the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) agreed to cooperate because of the proliferation of drug dependents in schools. He added the DDB was ordered to take over the rehabilitation aspect because the health department has difficulties focusing on it.
On drug tests among television personalities, Sotto said: "We might not have the power to do so. We can encourage industry leaders to either go for crackdown or initiate random drug tests in work places and that includes everyone whether they are in TV or other industries."
Dureza said the President ordered Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to immediately roll out new rehabilitation centers in the country, adding that the country needs six to eight rehabilitation centers in at least four more regions. He said the government would lease existing facilities.
Sotto, quoting from initial results of a 2008 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey commissioned by the government, said there were close to one million drug dependents in the country. Nine out of 10 males, mostly single and unemployed, are residing in urban areas and have an average monthly income of P14,980.
He proposed a plan of action, which includes:
* Detailing of solicitors from the Office of the Solicitor General to PDEA;
* Review and monitor of pending and decided cases;
* Review of operational procedures in buy-bust/entrapment operations, studying the possibility of deputizing other law enforcement agencies to conduct anti-drug operations with the coordination/supervision of PDEA, and the activation of 24-hour action teams nationwide;
* Construction and establishment of more rehabilitation facilities, designate a more focused agency to concentrate on rehabilitation aspects, and involvement of local government units; and
* Activate all Local Anti-Drug Abuse Councils in all local government levels, establish special drug education centers by the LGUs, conduct random drugs testing in all schools, and enhance the drug-free workplace program. (JMR/Sunnex) |
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