VILLAR, ENRILE: ANTIDRUGS LAW SHOULD BE STRENGTHENED

SENATORS Manuel Villar and Juan Ponce Enrile said Thursday that the
existence of the so-called "drug tiangge" in Pasig City stressed the
need to strengthen Republic Act 9165, the Comprehensive Antidrugs Act.

Finger-pointing on who is responsible for the campaign against drugs
shows the flaws of the law, Villar and Enrile said at the Senate
hearing on the Pasig drug dens.

The police raided on February 10 clusters of drug dens at the Mapayapa
Compound in Barangay Santo Tomas, Pasig City. The drug dens were
located near the barangay hall, the police and fire stations and a
mosque.

"I will give higher priority to the strengthening of the antidrugs law
than to the proposed antiterrorism law," Villar said.

"The growing audacity of the drug den operators and suppliers is
frightening, shocking. It seems they no longer recognize the
authorities," he added.

Villar lamented that government officials have been so concentrated on
the economic and political crises as to forget that the country is
also facing a growing drug problem.

Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Illegal
Drugs, asked Director Gen. Arturo Lomibao, chief of the Philippine
National Police, and Interior Undersecretary Anselmo Avenido Jr., head
of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, to submit to his committee
proposed amendments to the law for a more effective campaign against
illegal drugs.

Villar doubted Avenido's report that the drug problem in the country
had been reversed.

Avenido said the increase in the price of shabu, from P2,000 to P5,000
a gram, showed that the supply of the prohibited drug is becoming scarce.

Villar believes that drug dens are found not only in Pasig, but also
in other places in the country.

Enrile disclosed that another cluster of drug dens similar to that in
Mapayapa Compound was still operating in Pasig. He had given this
information to Lomibao.

Director Marcelo Ele Jr., head of the PNP AntiIllegal Drug Special
Operations Task Force, said Lomibao had ordered him to place the area
under surveillance.

"We will move as soon as we validate the report," Ele said.

Enrile asked Lomibao to immediately fire Senior Supt. Raul Medina,
former Pasig police chief, for sleeping on the job.

Medina, who was replaced after the raid, admitted that he had never
heard about the existence of drug dens in Barangay Mapayapa. He said
he was embarrassed by the discovery of the drug in his
jurisdiction.

"You should not only be embarrassed. You should also resign. You do
not deserve that uniform. It is useless for the country to be paying
people who can't perform their jobs," Enrile said.

At the hearing, Mayor Vicente Eusebio of Pasig City said the officials
concerned should work together rather than point fingers at others.

Vicente added that his office is willing to cooperate with the
drug-enforcement agency and the police in the antidrugs campaign.

Lomibao said that with Eusebio's cooperation, Pasig could still turn
out to be a model in the antidrug drive.