Don’t Give Up That Easy
One cannot be sure whether President Rodrigo Duterte was simply frustrated or admitting defeat when he remarked during a rally of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Baya in Malabon City late Tuesday that the drug problem is ‘swallowing’ the country and that his drug war has failed.
In case the President is just expressing his frustration at the way his campaign to rid the nation of illegal drugs is moving along he still has more than two years to find an adequate solution to the drug mess that the country is wallowing in right now.
Perhaps a different approach is needed to win the war on drugs and may be there is a need to overhaul the present tactics and strategy
being employed by the authorities as they pursue drug traders, drug users and drug syndicates in the country.
One problem that persists is the apparent lack of a more vigilant and active coastal interdiction capability which, given our wide and porous coastlines, has been continually taken advantage of by drug syndicates in transporting their illegal product into and through
our archipelago.
The Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coastguard have only so much patrol boats and gunboats patrolling limited swathes of coastline that in all possibility out of one or two drug shipments intercepted may be another three or five shipments have slipped
through.
This is the same problem hounding the ports, piers and airports in the country where local authorities, with the help and assistance of foreign partner nations, are shocked to discover that tons of illegal
drugs are regularly passing through our supposedly controlled and monitored gateways.
Considering the millions if not billions of money involved in these illegal drug shipments it might be safe to say that certain individuals
with influence and most probably in government service are taking bribe money to look the other way or turn a blind eye during the passage into the country of these illegal drugs.
In other words it is corruption which allows these drugs to enter the Philippines either for local consumption or for transshipment to other neighboring countries.
If the administration of President Duterte and the authorities involved in the ongoing drug war can find a way to effectively prevent and seriously halt the entry of illegal drugs in the country then half of the war is already won.
For the case of shabu laboratories or other laboratories of illegal
drugs the government must increase or even treble the amount of reward money for information leading to their discovery and seizure.
The public must be persuaded and convinced to participate and
cooperate in the campaign to eradicate illegal drugs. Money is certainly a great incentive.
Finally, if the President is actually and already admitting defeat in his war against drugs then someone must remind him that he must not give up because to do so would really open up the floodgates for
illegal drugs to swamp to country.
The President should also be reminded that his campaign to put an end to the illegal drug scourge is a ‘damn if you do and damn if you don’t’ scenario.
Digong can only move forward in his war on drugs because stepping back will only result in dire consequences for the nation.
New environment, New learning
April 7, 2019
