Drug war in court: Gov’t won just 2 of every 10 cases

THE SO-CALLED “shabu tiangge” in Barangay Sto. Tomas, Pasig City, was operated by the Boratong drug syndicate before it was dismantled in a police crackdown in April 2006. JOAN BONDOC

THE ILLEGAL drug trade has flourished, not only because of connivance between authorities and drug personalities, but also due to the government’s poor conviction rate in the filing of cases against them.

In a hearing conducted on Tuesday by the House committee on dangerous drugs,  Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Isidro La Peña told lawmakers that in the last 14 years, the government has won only two out of every 10 cases filed against drug lords and pushers.

La Peña said that out of the 20,425 cases filed by the  Philippine National Police (PNP) from 2012 to January this year, the suspects in around half or 10,380 cases were acquitted.

According to him, 5,574 cases or 27 percent were dismissed while only 4,471 cases or 22 percent resulted in convictions.

PDEA officials admitted that most of the cases failed to prosper either due to poor police work in gathering evidence or the lawmen’s refusal to cooperate with prosecutors.

La Peña has asked Congress to triple the intelligence fund for PDEA from P73 million to P250 million to enable it to carry out President Duterte’s order to go tough on illegal drugs.

He said that a total of 673,978 users, including 44,839 pushers, have surrendered between July 1 and Aug. 22.

The surrenderors represent a potential loss of P5.2 billion in “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) sales over the next six months.

“Based on consumption estimate, if the users who surrendered will stop using drugs for the next six months, 1,040 kilos of shabu will be reduced from  the market which will be translate to losses of P5.2 billion for drug traffickers,” said La Peña.