ARROYO VOWS ACTION VS ROGUE LAWMEN IN ANTI-DRUGS DRIVE

President Arroyo yesterday said she will weed out rogue lawmen who resell
confiscated drugs and cash in on arrested drug lords and vowed to reform
the government's drive against illicit drugs after she found out that
groups tasked to eliminate the drug problem are engaged in illegal activities.

"We have carefully studied and reviewed the performance of various drug
enforcement units. It has turned out that anti-narcotics units of stations,
district offices, and other PNP (Philippine National Police) units are
tainted," she said in a statement.

"The two most notorious illegitimate practices are turning arrested drug
pushers and traffickers into milking cows, and reselling of seized drugs,"
she said.

The President also said she wants to put an end to "sham drug tests" that
enable drug users to get driver's licenses and "pose a threat to public
safety."

The President, vowing to stop these practices, immediately directed the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to enforce "basic discipline and
lawful conduct on the ground level."

"These violations lie at the most elemental levels of demand and supply
curtailment where sustained pressure must be applied," she said.

"The PDEA will see to it that these reforms are pursued to their logical
conclusion," she added.

Arroyo asserted anew the authority of the Dangerous Drugs Board and its
operating arm, PDEA, in carrying out the campaign against illegal drugs.

"In this campaign, there must only be one point of operational authority
and accountability. This is the PDEA. It will enforce our disciplinary
policies strictly and evenly, without fear or favor," she said.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the President trusts PDEA chief
Anselmo Avenido will strictly screen possible anti-drug operatives before
hiring them.

Arroyo dropped on Saturday the controversial "four aces" and tapped the
"anti-drug junta" composed of Interior and Local Government Secretary and
DDB Chairman Jose Lina Jr., PDEA chief Anselmo Avenido, and Philippine
National Police Director for Administration Edgardo Aglipay in leading the
anti-narcotics campaign.

Of the "four aces" who figured prominently in previous anti-drug
operations, only . Reynaldo Jaylo will be appointed a director of the PDEA.

Sen. Robert Barbers remains in theSenate, but he will be making
recommendations to the PDEA.

Former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim had earlier been mentioned as in line for n
appointment as presidential adviser on the anti-drugs drive but this did
not go through.

The fourth of the "aces" is retired Insp. Lucio Margallo.

Lim was supposed to be appointed presidential adviser and Margallo as PDEA
director on the recommendation of Barbers.

Barbers is to exercise his oversight authority on the anti-drug campaign as
chairman of the Senate committee on public order.

Presidential spokesman Bunye said the PDEA can still seek advice from Lim
and Margallo even without their formal appointments.

Recycling

Senate President Franklin M. Drilon yesterday said the Senate will inquire
into reports about the recycling of illegal drugs confiscated by government
authorities.

Drilon asked the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to submit to his
office a report on the number of kilos of illegal drugs the agency has
confiscated and how many kilos had been burned to determine whether illegal
drugs have been recycled.

At the same time, he said that under the law, the PDEA is the "primary
agency responsible for the anti-drug campaign."

"One of the major objectives of the law creating the PDEA is to coordinate
the operations against illegal drugs and to centralize responsibility in
the PDEA," Drilon said. "All efforts in the anti-drug campaign must be
coursed through the PDEA as the primary agency responsible for the
anti-drug campaign."

Drilon backed Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Hermogenes
Ebdane for directing the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task
Force (AID-SOTF) to "desist from pro-active anti-drug operations."

Also included in the directive was the Criminal Investigation and Detection
Group (CIDG) which also had conducted anti-drug activities. These two
groups were ordered to support the PDEA as the lead agency in the anti-drug
campaign.

Drilon also reminded the PDEA and the police on the provision of the PDEA
law which said that illegal drugs must be burned within 24 hours after the
drugs possessor or manufacturer has been charged in court to avoid their
recycling back into the illegal drugs market.

The civic group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) had proposed
that confiscated "shabu" and other illegal drugs should be laced with
poison to discourage their recycling.

"I call on the PDEA to follow the law. The law says you must burn the
confiscated drugs within 24 hours after the cases have been filed in court.
If no cases have yet been filed in court, there is a procedure to follow.

"It seems that this procedure is not being followed and I am directing the
PDEA to report to my office how many kilos of illegal drugs have been
stored in their evidence room and how many kilos have been burned," said
Drilon.

"Now, if they are not following the law, they have a lot of questions to
answer from the Senate and the suspicion of the public that the confiscated
drugs are recycled would have basis. I also would ask General Ebdane to
submit a report on this," Drilon said.

On the proposal of Sen. Rodolfo Biazon that he mediates in the word war on
drugs between Senators Robert Barbers and Panfilo Lacson, Drilon said that
he was willing to. However, he said that if the two are merely debating on
the issue, "then there is nothing wrong with it.

"What is wrong is if they go down to personal insults. They should carry
their debate on a high level," he said.

Drilon said that Malacanang was right in not creating a super-body, such as
the "Four Aces", to supervise and direct the anti-drugs campaign because of
the new law placing the sole responsibility for drug enforcement on the PDEA.

In Taguig

Joint operatives of the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) and the Anti-Illegal
Drugs Task Force (AIDTF) of the Taguig police arrested six persons in
separates drug buy-bust operations and confiscated some 1.5 kilos of
"shabu" worth R1.8 million yesterday morning in Taguig, Metro Manila.

Arrested were Datu Ali P. Malendo, 26, Bonnie Cabidan, 33, Ismael S.
Pagulayan, 26, Muhamad U. Gambila, 29, all residents of 44 Maugindanao
Ave., Purok 3, Lower Bicutan, Taguig; Arnold S. Francisco, 36, of 355
Central, Purok 4, Bagumbayan, Taguig, and Leo Deado, 34, of 475 Purok 6,
M.L. Quezon St., Lower Bicutan.

A report to Supt. Rodolfo Sison, Taguig police chief, said that combined
operatives of the DEU and AIDTF conducted a buy-bust operation at the house
of alleged big time drug pusher Dennis Maruya at 278 Mahogany St., Bgy.
Bagumbayan at about 3 a.m. yesterday.

Sison said one of his men acted as poseur-buyer who was able negotiate with
Maruya the sale of R24,000-worth of shabu.

Sensing danger, Maruya ran inside his house, taking with him the drug bust
money and eluded arrest.

Maruya's alleged cohorts, Francisco and Deado who acted as lookouts, were
arrested by the police outside the house of Maruya.

Francisco and Deado pointed to Malendo as the source of the illegal drugs.

Sison said that they were able to arrest Malendo through text messaging,
making it appear that Maruya would purchase illegal drugs from Malendo.
(James Catapusan)

100 nabbed

The Metro Manila police arrested 100 persons, including two foreigners, in
the south and east of the metropolis and in Manila and confiscated 1.5
kilos of "shabu" in an unrelenting drive against illegal drugs.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief and Philippine National
Police Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco said the shabu haul with a
street value of R3 million was the biggest in a week-long operation made by
the Southern Police District.

The drugs were confiscated from four notorious drug dealers arrested in
buy-bust operations in Bicutan, Taguig, Velasco said.

The four suspects, Datu Ali Malendo, 26; Bonnie Cabidan, 33; Ismael
Palaguyan, 26; and Muhammad Gumbila alias "Nords", 29, were arrested by the
Taguig police headed by Sr. Supt. Rodolfo Sison at around 5:30 a.m.
yesterday at 44 Maguindanao avenue, Purok 3, Lower Bicutan, Taguig.

Meanwhile, Chinese Patrick Hao-Martin, 35, and Japanese Robert Ong-Sogar,
33, were arrested by the Pasay City police allegedly for possessing 65
grams of shabu, five sticks of marijuana cigarettes, two tablets of
ecstasy, one-fourth gram of heroin and drug paraphernalia.

The two were arrested by Sr. Supt Oscar Catalan at around 5 p.m. Friday at
Unit 8, G Tower B, Kingswood Condominium, Vito Cruz extension corner Pasong
Tamo street, Makati City.

Velasco commended Chief Superintendents Jose Gutierrez, Pedro Bulaong, and
Rolando Sacramento, directors of the SPD, WPD, and EPD, respectively, and
their men for their effort to fully implement the directive of President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for a total war against the narcotics trade.

"There will be no let-up in our drive to get rid of drug dealers in Metro
Manila." Velasco said as he vowed to suffocate the drug pushers and dealers
in the police drive.

The SPD, from 23 to June 30, arrested 78 drug suspects, 29 of them for drug
pushing and the rest for drugs use. The WPD arrested four suspected drug
pushers and the EPD rounded up 18 persons during the same period.

Some 95 plastic sachets of suspected shabu, apart from the 1.5 kilos of
shabu confiscated in Bicutan, and dried marijuana leaves with an estimated
street value of R8,372.60 were seized from the suspects.