THE FATAL encounter between elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Quezon City last week tells us one thing – this government’s highly touted drug is a sorry failure.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson does not disagree. In a recent radio interview he urged everyone not to “pretend anymore, the drug war really failed because the drugs are still there.”
Lacson deduced the obvious. Had the drug war succeeded there would have been a significant dent on the demand and supply of illegal drugs.
What is worse is that both PDEA and PNP are suspected to have sashayed into a trap set up by drug syndicates, which indicates strength, not weakness, on the part of those at the wrong end of the law.
The President has tasked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to come up with answers to satisfy a puzzled and fearful public. The NBI has not been known to fudge actions relating to these law enforcement agencies.
Lacson knows whereof he speaks. It was also last week that the NBI filed complaints of graft and grave misconduct against high-ranking officers of the Bureau of Customs and the PDEA on the basis of its findings that shabu worth one billion pesos was smuggled into the country two years ago.
The illegal drugs were found to be hidden in pallets represented by the shipper to be containing tapioca starch. Last May 2019, the Bureau of Customs auctioned off the “tapioca starch” despite reports that the 154-kilogram haul was actually shabu.
On top of eighteen other individuals, the NBI named the main responsible officers as Customs Commissioner Rey Guerrero, Deputy Commissioner Raniel Ramiro, PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva, and ex-PDEA head Aaron Aquino.
Note that these officials are all appointees of President Rodrigo Duterte. The buck stops with him. Despite the scandal, the President appointed Aaron Aquino chief executive officer of the Clark International Airport. Something is truly amiss.
Guerrero, Ramiro, and Villanueva continue to serve at their posts – positions that they hold at the pleasure of the President. They have not resigned despite the adverse findings of the NBI.
The President even defended Guerrero late last year. In a televised announcement he said he was excluding the commissioner from the list of officials that he suspects of involvement in irregularities in the bureau.
One can only wonder whether the President has changed his mind after the complaint of the NBI was made public. The recommendation awaits action by the Department of Justice.
One billion pesos worth of shabu intended to flood the market is a prominent blemish on the war on drugs. PDEA itself announced the drug shipment came from Cambodia, reportedly facilitated by the Golden Triangle drug syndicate, among the biggest in Southeast Asia.
Is there a genuine effort to guard our porous coastlines against the entry of illegal drugs?
Copious tears have been shed by the poor grieving over the thousands of violent deaths of alleged mules and users. Even if inclusion in the various drug lists is backed by evidence, is their elimination by any means a reliable measure of the success of the drug war?
The Bill of Rights is being sacrificed to favor a faulty mission. We have to ask: is this a real war?/PN
