Outgoing Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III is re-activating the Citizens’ Drug Watch (CDW) to lend its hand in the prosecution of persons facing illegal drugs-related cases.
Sotto also said that he plans to offer outgoing President Duterte the honorary chairmanship of the CDW.
During his six-year tenure as Chief Executive, Duterte has pushed hard law enforcement agencies to contain the multi-billion-peso illegal drugs trade.
‘’I plan to see him when we are plain, ordinary citizens,’’ Sotto said.
The Senate Chief said he would reactivate the CDW sometime in August or September.
The government tenures of Duterte and Sotto end on June 30, the day winners in the May 9, 2022 national elections take their oaths of office.
Sotto said the CDW would complement the government’s illegal drugs campaign. It would focus on the prosecution aspect.
The late Senator Ernesto Herrera had acted as CDW chairman with Sotto as vice chairman when the office of the Senate was still located at the old Congress building or the National Museum beside Manila City Hall.
Sotto was also chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) during the Arroyo administration.
He said the CDW had attended court hearings of persons facing illegal drugs-related charges.
Sotto cited the case of a Cebu drug lord where CDW members attended the court trials.
This was the big Cebu ‘shabu’ drug laboratory where there were 11 persons involved but only the drug lord faced court trial.
` Sotto said CDW attended the court trials that dragged on for five years because of lawyers’ tactics.
The court later on handed down a life sentence on the ‘drug lord’’ whom he identified as a ‘’Calvin Tan.’’
Sotto said it is disheartening to know that there was an 85 percent dismissal rate of drug cases during the Noynoy Aquino administration and 65 percent in the Duterte administration.