PASIG DRUG MARKET FLOURISHING FOR 3 YEARS NOW

As I See It

THE POLICE GUESSED WRONG WHEN THEY said that the drug dens in Pasig
that they raided the other day have been there for "less than a year."
According to sources, the drug market in the area has been there for
more than two years, possibly even three years. The shabu
"restaurants" started more than a year ago, after a fire razed the
squatter shanties there; but the selling and use of drugs in the area
had been flourishing much earlier. The sources said squatters were
allowed to erect shanties inside that 1,000-square-meter lot (not 600
sq m as earlier reported) "provided they sold shabu." (The lot is
fenced partly with a wall of hollow blocks and partly with galvanized
iron sheets.) This shabu market was pretty well known to residents in
the area. So it was impossible that the police and Pasig City
officials did not know the drug dens there. In fact, the Eastern
Police District headquarters, city hall and police community precinct
are a spitting distance from the market site. There is even a police
outpost at the entrance to the street going to the drug dens.

"Incomprehensible," PNP Chief Arturo Lomibao said after seeing the 40
or so drug dens inside the compound. "I can't believe this."

Well, he better believe it. And merely reassigning and retraining the
Pasig narcotics team and the seven-man contingent of the police
community precinct will not be enough sanction. They deserve a harsher
punishment. The operators of the drug dens would not have been so bold
if they were not enjoying protection or had not established a modus
vivendi with the police. The dens were operating openly; tricycle
drivers routinely took passengers to or patronize the dens themselves.

The operators were so confident they had a price list of the drugs
sold openly displayed. At night, they had agents with flashlights
signaling potential customers arriving in cars-proof that the dens
were patronized by well-to-do addicts from other places. My sources
said some residents had hinted to the police a long time ago (very
discreetly, for obvious reasons) the existence of the drug dens, but
nothing happened-until the other day.

It is hard to believe that the police were merely caught flatfooted.
They could not have been blissfully unaware of the existence of the
drug dens that were only a stone's throw away from their precinct.
They must have been in the act much deeper.

Police community precincts are police detachments assigned to
communities, complete with offices, a small jail and a contingent of
policemen. They are supposed to show the face of the law in the
"lucky" communities and eradicate lawlessness in these areas. Alas, it
rarely happens that way. Ironically, the presence of the police
precinct sometimes promotes lawlessness.

The police community precinct near the drug dens in Pasig is a good
example. I remember the police precinct in Balintawak that Chair
Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority dismantled
because it had become a disgrace.

Then there is the police precinct at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue
and Tandang Sora (under the flyover) in Quezon City. This corner
should be a showcase of law and order because of the presence of this
police precinct. But it is not.

Traffic here is terrible. Sidewalk vendors spill into the street. Cell
phones are taken from owners right at the street corner. (Once a
student was stabbed dead nearby.) And all these can be seen from the
door and windows of the police community precinct. There are chairs
outside where policemen can often be seen chatting. Often there are
police cars and motorcycles parked under the flyover. At certain
hours, there are two groups of traffic enforcers here-one from the
MMDA (those in blue uniforms), and the other from the city hall (those
in yellow shirts). Sometimes, there is a big group of motorcycle cops
gathered under the flyover.

There is a steel barricade along Commonwealth to prevent jeepneys from
loading and unloading passengers at the street corners. And there are
two waiting sheds-one on each side of Commonwealth-for commuters. But
traffic is still terrible. Why?

Because nobody pays attention to the traffic signs, to the yellow
boxes and pedestrian stripes on the pavement. Nobody pays attention to
the traffic enforcers; the enforcers are not interested in orderly
traffic anyway. And nobody uses the waiting sheds. Commuters wait for
rides in the middle of the street, so jeepneys and buses stop in the
middle of the street to pick them up. Even when there are traffic
enforcers around, they don't direct the commuters to the waiting
sheds. No, they stand in the middle of the street with the commuters
and wave at the jeepney drivers.

Near the street corners, beside the pedestrian lane, there are big
signs: "Strictly No Loading/Unloading. SB" The "SB" stands for Quezon
City Mayor Sonny Belmonte. But the mayor is made a laughingstock
because jeepneys stop to load and unload passengers right beside the
sign, in the middle of the pedestrian lane, and "barkers" call for
passengers right there. Even the mayor's "Yellow Shirts," when they
are there, don't do anything to shoo away the barkers or the jeepneys.

Crossing Commonwealth Avenue here is dangerous. Drivers pay no regard
to the pedestrian lane or to the pedestrians. Even if there are
enforcers there, they do not stop the vehicles to allow passengers to
cross. The latter have to run for their lives.

(To be continued)