P65-BILLION DRUG PROTECTION

Mr. Expose

Shabu resto, supermarket, tiangge, one-stop shop, an arcade of 40
restaurants - the variety of descriptions of how incredible and
unusual is the story of a community of drug dens and stalls behind the
Pasig City Hall and only 200 meters away from a police station.

An entrance fee of P10 was charged with a close circuit TV guarding
the community. A menu of shabu-related services with corresponding
prices was posted prominently. Three hundred nineteen persons
including 59 minors were arrested. One-hundred-seventy-nine tested
positive for drug use. Sex and prostitution and billiards were also
available. Witnesses say it has been in operation for more than two
years catering to about 500 patrons a day.

Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao described the
existence of the drug tiangge as "incomprehensible." It indicates the
stark reality that drug use and pushing have reached serious
proportions in the Philippines with United Nations' estimates reaching
as high as P432 billion as the total amount involved in the illegal
drug trade.

It validates suspicions that the much ballyhooed raids on 10 drug
laboratories last year were just for show and barely scratched the
surface, raising serious questions on police and official protection
and involvement, making the Philippines the third-biggest producer of
shabu in the world, according to the United Nations Office on Drug and
Crime (UNODC).

As Gen. Marcelo Ele Jr. said: "In my entire career as an officer, I
have never seen anything like it!"

Yes, sir, under GMA there are so many bad happenings that you have
never seen before. One case of malgovernance after another. Truly
incomprehensible.

GMA reacted to the Pasig drug bust by ordering the PNP to destroy all
Metro Manila drug dens. Weren't the police duty-bound to do that
without waiting for a presidential directive? But the sadder reality
is - presidential directives are never seriously followed by the PNP
or other executive departments.

The bigger reality is that going by the 15 percent "inteligencia" on
jueteng protection, that's P65-billion drug protection money.