SPECTER OF DRUGS

Last March the U.S. government tagged the Philippines as a major source and
transshipment point of narcotics, particularly crystal methamphetamine,
locally known as shabu.

A report issued by the State Department said that local production of the
drug, also known as "ice" and "meth," was much bigger than the known demand
for it in the Philippines. The conclusion, therefore, was that the surplus
output was being exported overseas, notably to the United States.

Other recipients of the drugs made in the Philippines, with raw materials
sourced from China, include Japan, South Korea, Guam and Saipan, the State
Department reported.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police has pegged the annual value of
illegal drug production and trafficking in the country at P250 billion. So
huge has the local drug problem become that the United Nations has even
given the Philippines the dubious honor of ranking it third, after China
and Myanmar, on a list of Asian countries with the biggest narcotrafficking
"industries."

All these ominous signals must have made President Arroyo consider naming
Deputy Director General Edgardo Aglipay as PNP chief to replace Director
General Hermogenes Ebdane, who is reportedly being considered as executive
director of the National Security Council.

Since his appointment as chief of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations
Task Force in June last year, Aglipay has turned in a performance that
apparently impressed Malacanang. If he is named the country's top cop, the
President would be sending the signal that she expects the entire PNP to
train its sights on the drug problem.

Similarly impressed with Aglipay's performance is executive director Jose
Calida of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Certain quarters have questioned
Aglipay's eligibility, pointing out that he is due to retire from the
service in September. Not Calida.

A justice undersecretary before he was moved to the DDB, Calida pointed out
that the PNP Reform Act of 1998 specifically exempts the position of PNP
chief from a provision that prohibits the appointment of officials due for
retirement. "As pointed out by my [Ateneo College of Law] professor Fr.
Joaquin Bernas, it is the President's prerogative to appoint as PNP chief
an officer in whom she has full trust and confidence," Calida said during a
recent media forum.

"It seems to me, therefore, that the appointing authority has the
discretion of choosing one to be Chief PNP even if the person is close to
retirement age if she thinks he is the best person for the job," wrote
Bernas in his July 21 column in Today. "Moreover, such person may be
allowed to serve beyond retirement age in order to complete one tour of duty."

If Aglipay does get named PNP chief, he would have his work cut out for
him. He acknowledged as much in the same media forum when he said that one
percent of the country's 120,000-strong police force are either drug users,
protectors of drug syndicates or both.

Other sources indicate that the number of police officers involved in
narcotrafficking is significantly higher than the 1,200 figure quoted by
Aglipay. He did say, however, that 302 of these rogue cops have already
been arrested, suspended and undergoing criminal prosecution.These
complaints are among the over 67,000 drug-related cases the authorities
have filed from 2001 until last May. Many of these cases are pending, said
Calida, who also admitted he had no idea how many of these complaints have
resulted in convictions.

Which brings us to another disturbing aspect of the drug problem. No matter
how many pushers and drug lords the police round up, their incarceration is
not certainty due to what the authorities insist are infirmities in the law.

Even the State Department report on the drug problem in the Philippines
released last March noted that law enforcers are restrained by "several
procedures," preventing them from carrying out their mission effectively.
"Major evidentiary and procedural obstacles exist in the Philippines in
building effective narcotics cases," the State Department report said.
"Restrictions on the gathering of evidence hinder narcotics investigations
and prosecutions. Philippine laws regarding electronic surveillance and
bank secrecy regulations constrain prosecutors' ability to build narcotics
cases."

Calida echoed the same sentiment when he proposed a couple of amendments to
Republic Act 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2001.

The DDB official said that in almost all the clandestine shabu laboratories
that the authorities have detected and raided, the owners of the houses and
warehouses where the drugs were being made claimed they were unaware of
what was going on within their property.

"One of our proposals takes its cue from the Anti-Money Laundering Act,
which invokes the so-called know-your-customer rule," Calida explained. The
antidrugs law should be revised to make legally liable the owners of
houses, warehouses and other structures where the production, storage and
trafficking of drugs are found to be taking place.

"Lessors must exercise their visitorial rights," Calida said. "And when
they suspect that their buildings are being used by drug syndicates, they
should be required to alert the police immediately. If they fail to do so,
they should be penalized."

The DDB executive director also proposed giving law enforcers greater
leeway in monitoring the electronic communications of drug suspects.
"Authorized eavesdropping on the telephone conversations, text messages,
e-mail and the like of suspected drug syndicates would go a long way in
helping us nab the big fish," said Calida.

"In the fight against drugs, we expect so much from our lawmen," he said.
"But we have not armed them with the equipment they need to do the job.
It's like asking them to fight for us with the hands tied behind their back."

The amendments that the DDB and other agencies propose to RA 9165 are
certain to face resistance from human rights advocates and the usual
left-wingers. While some of the objectors may be genuinely motivated by
civil libertarian concerns, others may have a more sinister purpose.

The State Department report noted links between big-time drug traffickers
and terrorist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf and the communist-led New
People's Army.

"Throughout 2003, Philippine authorities drew clear linkages between
drug-trafficking activities and terrorist organizations," the report said.
"The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist
organization operating in the extreme southwest of the Philippines,
collects money from drug smugglers by acting as protectors for foreign
trafficking syndicates. The ASG also controls a thriving marijuana
production site in Basilan."The State Department, citing intelligence
reports, added that the NPA "receives money for providing safe haven and
security for many of the marijuana growers in the northern Philippines and
collects 'revolutionary taxes' on the sale of drugs."

The question now is: Would the government allow itself to be held hostage
by terrorists and terrorist sympathizers disguised as human rights
advocates in the fight against drugs?