Alvarez willing to be anti-drug czar

Outgoing Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez hinted yesterday at accepting Malacañang’s offer making him the country’s new anti-drug czar if he is vested with police powers.

Alvarez, who will step down as environment secretary on Dec. 15, said that being an anti-drug czar also offers the same magnitude of work that only a dedicated, hardworking, competent and honest-to-goodness public servant can do.

"Definitely, if I’ll accept it, I want to be effective. I’ll accept it because it’s one of the more pressing social problems of the nation," said Alvarez, who launched yesterday a foreign assisted project dubbed "Ecological Governance."

He added that he wants to have full powers to act as investigator and policeman "to be able to unlock this jigsaw puzzle that threatens to tear apart the social fabric."

Alvarez, said that drug syndicates and their protectors have been raking in big sums of money. Yet, they even end up becoming high ranking government officials," he lamented. "Some of them are even elected officials or some of them are suspected to be involved in drugs. They enjoy an utmost acceptability in our society."

Alvarez said that almost 30 percent of the country’s youth have become victims of illegal drugs.

He said that it has become imperative for the government to create a new anti-drug body manned by a "competent, hardworking and dedicated servant if we are serious about ending enough to end the menace." — Charlie Lagasca