ONE-STOP SHABU 'RESTO' IN PASIG RAIDED

THEY were called "restaurants" but hardly looked like places where you
could sit down and eat. They even had armed guards but the entrance
fee was cheap.

A sign at the entrance said: "Don't just spit anywhere."

In one of the most incredible operations they have launched anywhere,
the Philippine National Police yesterday raided a cluster of drug dens
inside a shanty neighborhood in Pasig City and took more than 300
people into custody, including about 50 women and children.

Before the day was over, the entire seven-man force of the police
precinct only 500 meters from the dens had been sacked and the
anti-narcotics team of the Pasig police had been ordered to undergo
retraining.

"Incomprehensible," muttered PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao on
seeing the place.

Inside the 600-sq.-meter compound-just half a kilometer away from the
Pasig City Hall and the Eastern Police District-were shanties serving
as "one-stop-shop shabu restaurants."

Second Black Eye

At the "restaurant," drug users could rent shabu paraphernalia and
order grams of shabu.

The raid was the second black eye in a week for Pasig. Last Saturday,
74 people died in a stampede of television noon show fans in the
PhilSports Arena (formerly Ultra) in the city.

"I can't believe this," Lomibao told reporters as he surveyed the 30
to 40 shanties enclosed in the compound surrounded by iron sheets on
F. Soriano Street.

Following a tip from an informant, more than 150 policemen from the
Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force, the Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency and the Special Action Force barged into the
compound shortly before noon.

First Of Its Kind

In almost every shanty, they seized drug paraphernalia, packs of
suspected shabu powder and plastic bags filled with peso bills and
coins.

The number of people rounded up was so many that the policemen just
used straws and plastic cords in tying them up.

"This is unprecedented. This is the first of its kind," Task Force
chief Director Marcelo Ele said, adding the drug dens could have been
operating for more than a year round the clock.

In surveillance before the raid, agents monitored at least 100 people
going into the compound in just a span of five minutes, showing the
magnitude of the illegal operations.

Ele added that pushers could also be going inside to buy shabu in
bulk.

The Rules

The narrow entrance to the compound was usually manned by four men,
armed with guns. Just a few meters away was a notice on a plywood,
calling the place: "Shabu Shabu Restaurant."

An instruction in Filipino written in chalk on the plywood read: "No
loitering here."

The sign also said in Filipino:

Pickpockets are not allowed here.

Those who will not pay will be punished:

- - First offense: Confinement in the toilet for one
week.

- - Second offense: P1,000 fine

- - Third offense: You will be turned into a dart board.

"Someone will assist you named JR and Jegs," the sign also
said.

Entrance Fees

Many of those rounded up were dressed in shorts and T-shirts and wore
slippers.

The place had an entrance fee of P10 per person. For a group of five
people, the entrance fee was P30.

Once inside the compound, customers could choose which shanty to use.
Some of the hovels, with curtained doors, measured four square meters.

A wooden table stood at the center of each shanty. Users could rent
tooters, aluminum foils and buy drugs per gram.

Users are fondly called "scorers," a 12-year-old girl, who said she
had been living in the compound for almost a decade, told the Inquirer.

The drug dens served also as houses, some equipped with
air-conditioners, television sets, DVD players and refrigerators.

A Happy Place

A 54-year-old woman, who ran a canteen inside the compound, said the
"shabu restaurants" had been operating for almost a year.

"I have been advising them to stop. I cannot do much, because I also
fear for my life and the lives of my children," the woman said.

The compound looked like a happy community, with residents calling the
place as "Sitio Mapayapa (Peaceful)."

In the middle of the crowded compound stood a billiard hall, with
wooden posts decorated with posters of sexy women.

Palace operatives said they received a tip about the drug dens inside
the compound only last week. Surveillance confirmed the information,
Chief Insp. Roderick Mariano said.

The operatives burst in armed with a warrant from a Quezon City
judge.

Flea Market Of Drugs

Ele said the community appeared to have either tolerated the drug
activity or was involved in maintaining it.

"In my entire career as an officer, I have never seen anything like
it," Ele said.

Those who were rounded up were brought to Camp Crame for drug
testing.

Besides being investigated for possible negligence or connivance with
the drug dens' operators, the sacked precinct policemen will also
undergo retraining, officials said.

The ax also fell on the Pasig police anti-narcotics team for failing
to detect what Director Vidal Querol called "a flea market of illegal
drugs activity."

Lomibao specifically ordered the relief of precinct commander Senior
Insp. Salvador de la Cruz.

Multibillion-Peso Industry

Called "the poor man's cocaine," shabu is regarded as the top choice
of Filipino drug users followed by marijuana.

The Philippines is one of the world's three largest producers of
methamphetamine, or shabu, according to the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime. The UNODC report said the main production sites in
Asia were in China, Burma and the Philippines.

An earlier UNODC report based on 2000 figures showed that 2.8 percent
of Filipinos aged 15 to 24 were shabu users.

In 2003, UNODC said Filipinos were the world's fourth biggest
consumers of amphetamine and methamphetamine, based on population percentage.

In the Philippines, illegal drugs have become a P216-billion to
P432-billion industry. With reports from Luige A. del Puerto, PDI Research