EDITORIAL – Big business

While President Arroyo wants law enforcers to crack down on drug dealing the way Thailand did for three months this year, individuals facing drug charges continue to be freed on bail by Philippine courts. The latest to be granted temporary liberty was Tae Won Hong, a Korean who was arrested on Nov. 20 last year in Pasig City for possession of over a kilo of shabu — more than the minimum amount required to make it a capital offense. Tae was freed on P500,000 bail by Judge Leoncio Janolo Jr. of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court, raising a howl of protest from the arresting officers. Janolo said he approved bail upon learning that Tae was arrested in his car and not in his condominium unit as alleged by the police.

This is not the first controversial release of persons facing drug-related capital offenses. In some cases, judges were reprimanded or suspected of corruption and their release orders overturned. In other cases, sheer police bungling forced judges to release the accused. And then there are cases where cops too lazy to build a case against a genuine drug dealer resort to short cuts and plant evidence to arrest the suspect. Judges see through the manufactured evidence and acquit the accused.

These are just some of the problems bedeviling any campaign in this country against drug trafficking. Such campaigns have been waged on and off over the past decades. While a campaign is ongoing, drug dealers take a vacation or keep their heads down, re-emerging only when the heat is off. How do they know when to resume operations? From insiders in law enforcement agencies.

Drug trafficking is big business, and drug money can buy cops, soldiers, members of the judiciary and even politicians. The collusion of persons in authority has always been the biggest hindrance to any campaign in this country against drug trafficking. Unless these people are neutralized, the latest campaign will be just another flash in the pan.