DRUG INFORMANTS HESITANT; HUGE CHUNK BOUNTY UNTOUCHED

Despite a million-peso bounty, potential informants hesitate to give
information about drug traffickers for fear of putting their lives in
danger.

Anselmo Avenido Jr., national director of the Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said on Tuesday that of the P62.25 million
government budget for bounties, only nine percent or P5.5 million has
been released to informants.

Operation Private-Eye, a "reward mechanism" in the government's
campaign against illegal drugs, gives monetary rewards to anyone who
can give correct information about drug syndicates or drug traders
operating in the country.

The bounty is given immediately after the received information is
verified true, Avenido said. Part of the bounty budget was taken from
the government's P1 billion fund for the anti-drug campaign, which was
launched June this year.

Avenido said that despite the low turn of informants, the campaign
against illegal drugs has "come a long way in solving the drug menace
in the country."

"As a result of our intensive campaign, eleven big shabu laboratories
and five big warehouses of chemicals and equipments for shabu
production has been discovered and dismantled by the PDEA. This is one
indicator that we are on the move to eradicate the drug problem," he
said.

He said more drug traffickers are now behind bars, and pure shabu is
scarce due to people giving information about drug traders and pushers
to authorities, the participation of sectors in the campaign against
illegal drugs, and the voluntary surrendering of drug dependents for
rehabilitation.

"Daghan na kaayo ang nagasurender karon para ma-rehabilitate.
President Arroyo issued an order that there should at least be one
rehabilitation center in every region to meet the growing need of the
drug dependents," Avenido said.

To help improve jails teeming with drug dependents, Arroyo has
allocated P100 million for the expansion of jail facilities, Avenido
said.