PRESIDENT REACTIVATES ANTIDRUG CAMPAIGN

PRESIDENT Arroyo on Saturday ordered the revival of the crackdown on
illegal drugs owing to the discovery of a shabu bazaar in a squatters'
neighborhood in Pasig City on Friday.

Mrs. Arroyo also warned politicians and law enforcers who neglect
their duties or who might be in league with drug lords that they would
"be dealt with sternly."

"I order the police to clean up all drug enclaves in the metropolis
whether they are in the slums or in the affluent neighborhoods. These
are nests of ruin and criminality that should never be allowed to
fester," Mrs. Arroyo said.

Police and government narcotics agents raided the shabu bazaar, which
is a stone's throw from the Pasig City Hall. They rounded up as many
as 400 people, including about 50 women and children.

The President instructed authorities to take the young victims to
rehabilitation centers and to prosecute and jail the hardcore ones.

"The festering drug problem signals corruption, social decay and
familial disintegration. We must wield the consolidated power of all
concerned agencies, the schools, the private sector and the Church to
bear upon this grim challenge," she said.

Called "the poor man's cocaine," shabu has become the drug of choice
among users in the country. It has grown into a multibillion-peso
industry, overtaking marijuana as the most widely used substance.

Various government agencies, like the Bureau of Customs and the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, have seized billions of pesos'
worth of shabu, both imported and locally produced.

Police authorities have also closed down shabu laboratories in several
Metro Manila subdivisions, including the Sun Valley Subdivision and
Multinational Village, both in Paranaque City.

Though produced locally, a substantial amount of shabu is smuggled
into the country through the Bureau of Customs.

A reliable Customs source said big-time smugglers involved in drugs
find it more convenient to import shabu than produce it locally.