MANILA, Philippines — In a country where someone as young as a 6-year-old can be addicted to solvent or a 10-year-old could learn how to use shabu, there is no question that government should invest in efforts to stop the spread of illegal drugs.
Senators on Tuesday expressed support for the request of anti-drug agencies to increase their respective budgets for 2017, citing the need to boost anti-drug enforcement, prosecution and rehabilitation as they confronted the magnitude of drug affliction in the country, including among minors.
In a nearly three-hour hearing of the Senate committee on finance, lawmakers called on the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) to step up their efforts against illegal, particularly in the areas of prevention and rehabilitation.
Lawmakers present at the budget deliberations also expressed no objection to proposals for increased funding, even themselves calling for hiking the budget to ensure consistency in the pursuit of the administration’s fierce war on drugs.
“We are at war. This is the first time we are winning the battle… well, probably not the war yet. We don’t want the momentum to stop. We have to support them,” said Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito at the hearing.
“Their increase is not really that big, even while we know how big is the responsibility they are facing right now. So we didn’t want to keep them for long, they have to work to continue the fight against illegal drugs,” said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian in an interview.
Proposed budget
The PDEA, the country’s chief anti-drug enforcement arm, is requesting a total P1.853 billion in funds, increasing their initial request of P1.217 billion by P635.526 million.
The increase, said PDEA Director General Isidro Lapeña, covers operational expenses totalling P249 million and capital outlay pegged at P386.5 million, planned to fund the construction of new regional offices, vehicles, communication and surveillance equipment, firearms and ammunition, and protective gear for anti-drug agents.
The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) is meanwhile requesting for a total P206.379-million budget, even as officials estimated that boosting rehabilitation efforts would require P4-billion, given the number of drug pushers and users deciding to surrender to authorities.
The number of surrenders has reached more than 600,000, but DDB Chair Benjamin Reyes expects the figure to increase to up to P1 million. At that point, Gatchalian said he was “disappointed” at the DDB’s measly proposal given its requirements.
“In my 15 years of public service life, it is only now that I’m seeing [drug suspects] volunteering to surrender. But it is such a waste that there is no intervention. They surrender, have their names listed then go back to the community, no followup, no nothing,” said Gatchalian.
“But if you can provide means to rehabilitate them, that’s the best. We close the circle,” he said.
Gatchalian said the DDB should come back to the committee with an amended proposal to factor in its rehabilitation requirements.
Poor conviction rate
He also called on the PDEA to boost its prosecution prowess, saying it was unacceptable that, per figures cited by PDEA Director General Isidro Lapeña, only 26 percent of 23,776 resolved cases from 2002 to 2016 led to a conviction, while the rest were either dismissed or led to the acquittal of the accused.
Lapeña said the lost cases were due to procedural problems, including the lack of evidence, inconsistencies in witness testimonies, irregularities in arrest, search and seizure operations, among others.
The resolved cases make up 16 percent of the total 153,234 drug cases filed nationwide within the same period, with the rest still pending in various stages of litigation.
“For me, this is really unacceptable. This is procedural, so this means this is PDEA’s fault,” said Gatchalian.
“The fight against drugs is not measured by the number of people who are killed but by the number of those in imprisoned and made to face the law,” he later said in an interview.
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri suggested increasing PDEA’s budget for legal services to bolster its roster of lawyers.
He also called for an increase in funding for the procurement of better equipment, saying anti-drug agents have died in operations due to lack of protective equipment and low-quality firepower.
“Kawawan naman ang drug enforcement agencies. PDEA has only about 2,000 personnel, and their law enforcement agents are 1,200, that’s for 102 million Filipinos,” Zubiri told reporters.
“They are severely lacking in firearms, and 80 percent of their firearms breakdown. And we literally have to give them additional bullets and firearms,” he said.
Minors young as 6 using drugs
Sen. Loren Legarda, the finance committee chair, expressed shock when Reyes told the panel that agency surveys found minors using illegal drugs.
“Please map Metro Manila and all urban centers into profiles like the [minors who are drug users] and submit it to us. Give me names, faces, families, and locations… It makes me emotional when a 6-year-old child is a rugby user and a 10-year-old is shabu user,” she told DDB officials.
READ: 10-yr-old Filipino kid already hooked on shabu — DDB
Asked later about the testimony, Legarda said: “It is heartbreaking as a mother, as a woman, as a Filipino.”
“I suggested to converge efforts with the Department of Social Welfare and Development for immediate assistance to families with children as illegal drug users/addicts and for the DDB to give the committee a complete list of where they are, so they can be assisted as soon as possible,” Legarda said when reached later about the hearing.
“We should also provide capital assistance to their parents for livelihood. It is heartbreaking as a mother, as a woman, as a Filipino,” she said. JE