Arroyo orders PDEA to make big arrests within 3 months

Jump-start the fight against illegal drugs and make big arrests within three months.

This was the order issued yesterday by President Arroyo to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) amid warnings that the Philippines has become a favorite transshipment point for foreign drug cartels.

The President said she would personally monitor the campaign and told law enforcement agencies she wants immediate "strategic results."

"This means the neutralization of the top (illegal drug) syndicates and the arrest of the leaders — a focused campaign against drug pushers, dealers and patrons in the government and, especially, those in uniforms, and a stop in the transnational smuggling of drugs through our shores," Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement.

"Drug lords, however high in the corridors of power they may be, must be exposed or hunted down like the common criminals that they are," she said.

The President has also renewed her appeals for the "full cooperation" of the public and the media in the fight against illegal drugs. "The future of our nation is at stake in this campaign."

Official figures released this week noted a sharp rise in the number of drug users in the Philippines, now 3.4 million from the 20,000 recorded in 1972.

The President was told by PDEA that there are a total of 175 local drug syndicates and 13 international drug rings on their watch list.

She cited Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra’s successful three-month crackdown on illegal drugs, for which Thaksin came under criticism. His anti-drug campaign came under fire from families of victims of summary executions who turned up on the streets of Thailand.

The President told all officials involved in the country’s anti-illegal drug campaign that she is giving them P1 billion from national lottery receipts, "which is more than Prime Minister Thaksin had when he fought and crushed the drug syndicates in three months’ time. I have asked, therefore, the drug enforcement agency to do a Thaksin in three months’ time."

She was referring to Executive Order 206, which deputized all law enforcement agencies in the anti-drug task forces under the PDEA and earmarked the P1-billion "standby fund" from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). –With Jaime Laude