THERE are actually two phases of President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.
The first phase is the elimination of so-called drug lords and drug dealers.
As I said in earlier columns, killing all of them will not eradicate the drug menace. There will always be the drug addicts, who are the victims. While there is demand, the menace will continue. All they have to do is to go underground for a while until it’s safe enough for them to surface again.
It has always been like that after the illegal drug cartels found the Philippines a lucrative market for illegal drugs.
I refer to the Chinese Triad, the West African drug syndicates and the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel that have made the Philippines a transshipment point in their worldwide operations.
Comes now the harder and more difficult phase: the rehabilitation of drug addicts. The President estimates that some 3.1 million Filipinos have become dependent on illegal drugs. What would Duterte do with them if they all surrendered? There will not be enough jails to detain them in. Existing city and municipal prisons are already packed.
For seven years I was involved with DARE Foundation, a rehabilitation center built by former La Sallete priest Bob Garon. I know that simply isolating drug addicts is not a solution. Neither does evangelization. Without proper intervention, drug addicts will go back to their old habits.
Drug rehabilitation can take years. A drug abuser usually isolates himself from family and other people. If a young boy or girl starts failing in school and for no reason; insists on going with peers (barkada) all the time; starts answering back; or stays in bed and sleeps all day —beware: These are signs of addiction.
Drug abuse should not be blamed on parents alone. There are plenty of factors at play.
Rehabilitating addicts is the more difficult phase of the war against illegal drugs. The few public and private rehab centers are not enough. It is said that the government may need from P50 billion to P100 billion to rehabilitate all the drug abusers.
My gulay, it all boils down to the law of supply and demand. So long as there is demand, the supply will not be far behind.
Lest I am mistaken, I believe President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs is on the right direction—if he could only stop the summary and extra-judicial killings.
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Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told foreign journalists that they should live in the Philippines to know what’s really happening in President’s war against illegal drugs. I say they don’t have to. The Internet should keep them informed. There are also local journalists attached to worldwide agencies.
The foreign press knows what’s happening in the country, and they don’t necessarily live here.
This is a problem that President Duterte should attend to. All these negative reactions are giving the country a bad reputation. Malacañang must realize that we still live in a community of nations.
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Allegations of the involvement of former Justice Secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima on illegal drugs as shown by the president coming out with a “matrix” showing her connections with her alleged driver-lover, with a former justice undersecretary, with a Pangasinan representative, who was also a former governor, and others in what is called “New Bilibid Prison connection” must be supported by sufficient proof.
I know President Duterte would not come out with such grave accusations if he did not have evidence. I say they should now be made public. The people have the right to know.
It’s an uneven fight between the President and De Lima for sure. How can anybody fight the President with all his awesome powers in his command?
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For years now, I have advocating the privatization of Pagcor’s dozens of gambling facilitate nationwide. I am glad that Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez and Pagcor Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Andrea Domingo both agree that government has no business being in business.
In a press statement, Domingo stated that Pagcor should remain a regulatory body in gaming and entertainment. When the four international gaming entertainment moguls entered the Philippines, I wrote about on the need for Pagcor to remain just a regulator, like all the regulators of gaming and entertainment in Macau, Las Vegas, Malaysia and South Korea.
This plan to privatize Pagcor cannot diminish its revenues and income. The state-owned agency can still resume it online E-Games and also online gaming market offshore.
In many instances, I know that the existence of so many Pagcor gambling casinos were abused during past administrations. Politicians had the privilege of getting free board and lodging in many places. And I know for a fact that in some Pagcor gambling casinos, some politicians are given free trips amounting to several thousands of pesos for gambling.
With the privatization of Pagcor’s casinos, all these abuses will stop.
