It has been reported that a murder is committed every hour, a robbery every 10 minutes, a rape every 72 minutes, and a theft every three and half minutes while more than 60 percent of those incarcerated in our jails are there for drug-related crimes.
Surprisingly, even inside the prisons, captured felons apparently maintain their hold on the illicit drug trade. Due to a surprise raid by NBI operatives led by the Justice Secretary late December of last year, the entire nation was shocked at the news of privileged inmates at the Bilibid prison. Convicted drug lords have been “living like kings” in luxury cells with guns, drugs and other contraband including stashes of US dollars, a jacuzzi and a stripper bar.
The incident reflects the sordid reality of the country relative to the proliferation of loose firearms and the growing drug industry which has insidiously corrupted our government institutions, with illegal drug syndicates investing huge amounts money to “buy” protection.
A review of other past news reports consistently turn up with incidents involving operatives from the Philippine National Police, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Customs, local government executives and even members of the courts allegedly accepting payoffs from drug traffickers. Media have also covered reports of notorious drug dealers walking out of detention (from the Philippine National Police headquarters at that) if not ordered freed by corrupt judges even in non-bailable cases. As a result (and as evidenced by the two surprise raids by the NBI at the New Bilibid prisons mentioned earlier) the majority of police raids have been prone to “advance notices” and have managed to arrest only the small fry. Worse, these accused traffickers somehow also manage to leave the country scot-free and continue on with their nefarious deeds.
For this reason the Philippines’ 2014 Crime and Safety Report issued by the Overseas Security Advisory Council – Bureau of Diplomatic Security of the U.S. Department of State, says that “Production, trafficking, and consumption of illegal drugs are issues of concern…Transnational organized crime groups both exploit under-staffed and under-resourced law enforcement and a weak judicial system to establish clandestine drug laboratories and import wholesale quantities of methamphetamine to supply the domestic market. Regionally, the Philippines is an identified source of methamphetamine for Guam and a transit point from Africa to Southeast Asia.”
Compared with our neighboring countries which have severe penalties when it comes to drugs, the Philippines has very “weak” policies with regard to the issue of illegal drugs. Just recently six convicted drug felons were executed in Indonesia. President Joko Widodo, who took office in October 2014, has taken a particularly hard line towards people on death row for narcotics offences, insisting they will not receive a presidential pardon as Indonesia is facing an “emergency” due to high levels of drug use and has refused to heed all international requests for clemency. We cannot help but place a connection that because of their strong political will to combat this menace, it is not as prevalent as our situation wherein, as earlier mentioned in a news report by Deputy Director General Felipe Rojas Jr., PNP deputy chief for administration, 75 percent of crimes nationwide are drug-related and 65% of our inmates are incarcerated because of drug-related cases. Also, the ownership of guns in their jurisdiction is illegal and likewise comparing their crime rate with ours reveals a huge difference.
Undoubtedly these are issues which Congress should immediately focus on. Hopefully Malacanang and its allies in Congress can support House Bill 4150 filed by Rep. Aleta Suarez (3rd District, Quezon) which seeks to amend Section 11 of Republic Act 9165, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which imposes a penalty of life imprisonment to death, and a fine of P500,000 to P10 million pesos on any person depending regardless of the quantity of dangerous drug he is in possession of.