VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN

TWO seemingly unrelated articles in the Inquirer's Feb. 17 issue
caught my attention: Michael Tan's "Drugs and the law"; and the news
"Girl's death strikes fear in town." I personally believe they are
somehow connected.

Tan's article was insightful. He correctly pointed out that much of
our anti-drug campaign is focused on punitive measures rather than on
addiction-prevention and rehabilitation. Indeed, most Western
countries deal with addiction as a health issue -- which explains the
"lax" treatment Nora Aunor is getting from US courts. Here in the
Philippines, we still view it through the prism of the criminal
justice system.

The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and the annual allotment
for the Department of Health's drug rehabilitation programs (as
compared with the military and police budget) show how poorly the
government understands the drug problem. No wonder, in spite of the
authorities' success in jailing pushers and seizing large quantities
of drugs, the number of addicts in the Philippines keeps on growing:
In 1992, the UN estimate was 700,000; last year, the Narcotics Command
counted 8 million. We know fully well that the number is much bigger.

At the rate things are going, the war against drug abuse will go on
for several decades more. Meanwhile, more children will be forced to
work in subhuman conditions because their fathers will be too busy
making a career out of aluminum foils and water pipes, driving their
mothers insane. Others will end up as collateral damage in drug deals
(involving their parents) gone wrong. Still, others will die in the
very hands of their paranoid parents. Little girls will be raped and
brutally murdered and found dead in garbage dumps and rivers.

This is not a new phenomenon. This is not a "Filipino curse." Two
decades ago, the same tragedy happened to little children in
California. A man named Randy Fitzgerald conducted a thorough
investigation. In his Reader's Digest article, "A Devil Stalks the
Land," he warned the whole world about the direct link between drug
abuse and violence against children.

Obviously, no one among us listened. Our present approach to the drug
problem lacks contingencies to protect our little children while the
drug war rages.

Ray S. Nobleza, 55 San Ramon, Camaligan, Camarines Sur 4401