Why is it that despite the frequent anti-illegal drugs operations of the police, where many suspects have gotten killed, drug traffickers, pushers and couriers, both foreigners and Filipinos, still continue their illicit trade?
Last week, Philippine drug-enforcement agents arrested four suspected drug traffickers from China and seized a huge cache of crystal meth or shabu with a street value of P1.1 billion in two operations in Alabang—one at the Alabang Town Center parking lot along Madrigal Avenue and the other inside the Ayala Alabang Village.
The 163 kilos of drugs seized from the Chinese nationals were stuffed inside tins of biscuits that were also used as packaging for drugs in other Southeast Asian countries, according to Aaron Aquino, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). He said the drugs likely came from the “Golden Triangle,” which includes parts of northern Thailand, Lao PDR and Myanmar.
Just last month, two Chinese nationals were killed in a shootout with PDEA agents in Tanza, Cavite. That operation led to the recovery of 274 kilos of shabu valued at P1.9 billion.
Then there were the recent seizures of cocaine and ecstasy. PDEA recorded six incidents where the agency recovered blocks of tightly sealed bags of cocaine floating on our shores—92.78 kilograms worth P491.25 million.
Ecstasy is very popular among young people who love to go to parties and dance clubs. On March 11, PDEA agents killed Steve Pasion, “the number one distributor of ecstasy” according to their chief. Yet these party drugs keep turning up.
Last Monday, around P1.5 million worth of ecstasy and other party drugs were seized from two affluent college students.
The constant supply of high volumes of cocaine, shabu and other drugs—despite numerous drug busts by the police—indicate the vastness of the country’s drug problem.
Public awareness campaigns, mass education and grassroots advocacy against the use of illegal drugs may have curbed the demand. The police may have produced commendable results in terms of the arrests and prosecution of some drug dealers. But all these efforts have not really deterred drug traffickers and the major drug dealers from engaging in the illegal drugs business. With billions in profits involved, drug dealing would always be perceived as well worth the risk by criminal elements.
It would take more than tough words to deter them, especially since they are still getting help from coddlers in government. There are three congressmen, 43 local government officials, as well as unnamed judges and prosecutors on President Duterte’s so-called narco list.
While policemen were responsible for the drug raids, some of them suspect that it is possible that some of the drug dealers are given the “green light” to operate by their own brothers in uniform, in return for millions of pesos in grease money. Perhaps the coddlers’ involvement is not limited to just getting huge kickbacks and monthly retainers. It would not be surprising if they helped set up the drug networks themselves.
Last October, for instance, President Duterte fired six police officers who worked in a team to battle illegal drugs after they were found to be part of the illegal drug trade themselves.
The issue of police and other government people’s involvement in illegal drugs, whether they are coddlers and protectors or are directly involved in drug trafficking and drug dealing, is not new. There were many cases when drug operations were granted by the police and local officials through a system of “franchises,” in the same manner that jueteng operations were also granted as franchises.
The office of the President and the police should use their substantial intelligence budgets to help identify all the coddlers and coconspirators of drug dealers in the government and prosecute them. The government needs more intelligence, more action, more sting operations, more everything to catch these criminals in the police, Judiciary and local governments. Again, it will certainly take a lot more than tough populist rhetoric to deliver on the President’s promise to stamp out illegal drugs in the country.
It is inconceivable that such volumes of illegal drugs can be trafficked in, around and throughout the country without the knowledge of people in the higher echelons of power, especially given the scale of the proceeds. What if they have been sanctioned, one way or another?
Image credits: Jimbo Albano
