Gov’t admits difficulty in policing illegal drugs smuggling

Solicitor General Jose Calida. TOTO LOZANO/ Presidential Photo

Solicitor General Jose Calida admitted during Tuesday’s oral argument that the government is focusing on street peddling in its war on drugs because it is difficult to control or stop the illegal drugs smuggling.

Calida was responding to the question of Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on why the government was concentrating on street peddlers instead of stopping the bulk smuggling of illegal drugs.

“Why is the policy [focusing] to go after the retail and not the bulk,” Carpio asked.

“Unfortunately our country is an archipelago,” Calida said, explaining that the shabu are being dumped into the sea by the Chinese drug syndicates and that somebody will get them from the high seas and bring to the Philippines.

“We cannot police an archipelago. There are so many places that can be transported to,” Calida said.

But Carpio noted that “I do not think they [drug syndicates] will have to resort to dumping them at sea because they can easily get out of Customs. If you police the Customs, you can catch a lot of them.” Carpio took note of the more than 600 kilos of shabu smuggled through Customs and found at a warehouse in Valenzuela.

“Can you explain why the PNP (Philippine National Police) is concentrating on street-level operations and practically ignoring the big time drug lords? How come the flagship project of the President is going after small time peddlers, why not big time peddlers,” Carpio asked.

Calida said the instruction of President Duterte is to go after all those involved in illegal drugs but the big time Chinese drug lords are in China which is outside Philippine jurisdiction.

The lead government counsel said once government authorities manage to stop peddling, the authorities could then focus on big time drug lords.

“The first concern [is] to stop the peddling and then go after the big time drug lords,” Calida said. /je