FINDING ANSWERS
Former Senator
Atty. Joey Lina
The war on drugs “will continue but in a more focused way,” President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said in his recent New York meeting with the Asia Society which also tackled the issue of human rights.
“What we can do is to examine and learn lessons from the experience from the past administration… it is certainly my view that enforcement, which has been the part of the drug war that has been most vigorously pursued by President Duterte, only gets you so far,” he explained.
Indeed, despite extensive law enforcement efforts in the past which has resulted in more than 6,000 deaths as per PNP data since the drug war began in 2016, the drug menace is still much around. Even former President Duterte admitted he realized it was a mistake for him to say he could end the country’s drug problem in six months.
The magnitude of the death toll, which human rights groups said could reach as much as 30,000, has fueled allegations that crimes against humanity have been committed, prompting a formal investigation by the International Criminal Court.
“My approach is slightly different,” Marcos told the Asia Society forum. He narrated that in his first command conference, he asked policemen to adjust the focus of enforcement. “To put it very bluntly, I simply told them, ‘look I’m not interested in the kid who makes ₱100 a week selling weed.’ That’s not the person that I want you to go after.”
He further told police: “I want you to go after people who — if we get them, if we neutralize them, or put them in jail, we put them away, whatever it is — will make an actual difference so that the supply of drugs, the system of distribution, the system of importation of drugs because much of it really does come from abroad. That will actually make a difference, it will put a stop to it.”
President Marcos also told the forum that besides law enforcement, the drug war focus shall also be on prevention and cure. He said education will bring the message to the youth that “this is a dead end. This will get you absolutely nowhere. It will get you put in jail. It will get you killed. And even if it does not do that, this will take away your future.”
In a recent interview with vlogger Toni Gonzaga, President Marcos also said that rehabilitation of drug addicts shall also be the focus. “Even as we speak, there are working groups putting together … In fact, right now, we are trying to formulate how, what is the latest and what’s the best way for the rehabilitation.”
As a former human rights lawyer, I have to say that the President is absolutely right when he says that the enforcement aspect alone will not lick the drug menace. As proven in the past, the thousands of lives lost failed to end the enormous drug problem.
So what’s the best way to wage the drug war? The answer can be found in the law, RA 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 which created the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The law empowers the DDB to “be the policy-making and strategy-formulating body in the planning and formulation of policies and programs on drug prevention and control.” It is tasked to “formulate, develop and establish a comprehensive, integrated, unified and balanced national drug abuse prevention and control strategy.” The PDEA, on the other hand, is the implementing arm.
As former head of the DDB when I was DILG secretary, I can assure the DDB is highly capable. This is because the DDB is a high-powered organization composed of l7 members, nine of whom belong to the President’s Cabinet – the Secretaries of the Departments of Justice, Health, National Defense, Finance, Labor and Employment, Interior and Local Government, Social Welfare and Development, Foreign Affairs, and Education.
Aside from the PDEA chief, other members of the DDB are the heads of the Commission on Higher Education and National Youth Commission, the national president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and national president of the Philippine Association of Social Workers Inc.
With such brilliant minds in the DDB, many believe that inherent flaws and serious mistakes that have plagued the drug war before could have been avoided if only policies and strategies were made to undergo extensive scrutiny and planning by the DDB.
The various executive departments could have contributed greatly in coming up with policies and strategies. DOLE, for instance, could come up with a livelihood strategy for addicts and pushers to rebuild their lives. DOJ could come up with ways to improve prosecution and speed up cases, DILG could find ways to have more jails and get more LGUs to be more active in the drug campaign, DepEd could intensify efforts to steer the youth away from drugs, DOH could come up with more rehab centers or even asylums for the criminally insane for those beyond recovery.
Thus, President Marcos can wage the drug war differently and be successful – if RA 9165 is fully implemented and use of the DDB is maximized.
Email: finding.lina @yahoo.com