FIRING SQUAD URGED FOR DRUG PUSHERS

Law enforcement officials threw yesterday their full support behind a
Senate bill providing for death by firing squad rather than lethal
injection for drug pushers.

It also provides for a smaller amount of drugs seized from pushers to
qualify for the death penalty.

The support was given to Sen. Robert Z. Barbers, chairman of the
Senate public order and illegal drugs committee, during a joint
hearing of his committee and of the Senate health committee chaired by
Sen. Juan Flavier, on various drug-related bills, foremost of which is
the creation of a Presidential Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The present law provides for the death penalty for possession of at
least 200 grams of morphine, cocaine, or "shabu." The Barbers bill
lowers this to 15 grams but the two committees accepted the proposal
of Dr. Rey San Juan, executive director of the Dangerous Drugs Board
(DDB), to further reduce this to 10 grams.

Barbers expressed elation at similar support to his bill by the Zonta
Club, the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the National Bureau of
Investigation ((NBI).

NBI Director Federico Opinion called for a change in national policy
on drugs, in particular, changing the classification of a drug user
from patient to criminal.

Law enforcers pointed out that other countries treat drug users as
criminals. Nigeria considers drug addiction a "'contagious disease"
that calls for the execution of the violator.

Barbers, a former bemedalled Manila police officer, cited the Peoples'
Republic of China (PROC) as one of the countries determined to stamp
out drug addition by executing a criminal with just one bullet in the
head and the family of the criminal is billed the cost of the bullet.

The current cost of execution Filipino criminals through lethal
injection, supposedly the most humane way of terminating the life of a
criminal, is in the hundreds of pesos, while the cost of a 9mm bullet
ranges from P12 to P70.

Barbers agreed with the current policy that a drug user should be
treated as a victim or as a patient but this should last no more than
12 months after which the drug user is reclassified a syndicate member.

Barbers asked the resource persons in yesterday's hearing to submit
their position papers to the Senate technical committee on various
issues touched by bills filed by him and his colleagues such as:

Dismissing from the force policemen who had a hand in the dismissal of
a drug case filed before the courts by not appearing in court trials
and penalizing his superiors for sending him to other police duties
other than the policeman's calendared court duty.

Security for informants in drug-related cases.

Severe punishment for planting of evidence by law enforcers.