RP SEEKS WIDER ANTI-DRUG PACT WITH CHINA

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. said yesterday
he would seek Chinese cooperation in finding ways to check the export
from China of raw materials for illegal drugs when he visits Beijing
next week.

Lina said his visit was to see that previous anti-drug agreements
between the two countries were being implemented and if they could be
improved.

He would also seek the Chinese government's help "so there can be a
faster and more effective way of controlling the delivery of
precursors and essential chemicals (to make drugs) which are mostly
coming from China."

Such ingredients are used in the manufacture here of such drugs as
shabu.

Lina added that, as part of an accelerated anti-drug campaign, the
police were "already hot in the trail of the 125 local drug groups and
13 transnational drug syndicates."

President Arroyo last month ordered a stepped up campaign against
illegal drugs, warning that drug gangs were forming alliances with
local terror groups and had become a national security threat.

Possession of large amounts of illegal drugs is punishable by death in
this country and many accused drug dealers are already on death row.

But Mrs. Arroyo in September last year suspended all executions
following calls by the Catholic church not to implement the death
penalty.