PROTECT RIGHTS OF MINORS NABBED IN PASIG DRUG BUST--SENATOR

GOVERNMENT and police authorities must observe and protect the rights
of the 59 minors nabbed during Friday's drug buy-bust operation in
Pasig City, Senator Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan said.

"I call on our authorities to be very careful in handling the cases of
all these minors and be mindful of the extra protection that the law
provides these children," said Pangilinan, author of the Juvenile
Justice Bill in the Senate.

"I also call on our Department of Social Welfare and Development to
monitor these minors stringently so that they will be reformed and
reintegrated to society," he said Monday.

Police anti-narcotics agents rounded up some 300 suspects, 59 of them
minors, during a buy-bust operation Friday in a "shabu market" in Pasig City.

Police seized millions of pesos worth of "shabu" (methamphetamine
hydrochloride) during the raid on some 100 shanties at a compound in
Sto. Tomas village.

Pangilinan said the involvement of minors in illegal drugs trade is "a
sad testament to the dismal situation" of Filipino children.

He pushed for the immediate passage of Senate Bill 1402 or the
Juvenile Justice Bill, which addresses the plight of children who are
in conflict with the law.

The measure seeks to change the current punitive mode to a system of
restorative justice in dealing with juvenile felony.

The bill was passed by the Senate last December and is awaiting
bicameral hearing, the senator said.