As tension rose between government prosecutors and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, President Arroyo announced yesterday that she would temporarily take over the anti-drug campaign. She risks being blamed if the drug problem is perceived to worsen or remain the same during her takeover. But by the time she relinquishes supervision of the campaign, the inter-agency tension should have subsided and there should be better coordination among all the law enforcement agencies involved in fighting drug trafficking.
While she is micromanaging this campaign, the President will be expected to do several things. One is to weed out misfits and plug opportunities for corruption in the prosecution service. This will require speeding up the resolution of the controversy surrounding the arrest and proposed release of three drug suspects apprehended by PDEA agents, and to impose punishment where appropriate.
Resolving the case must include making PDEA agent Marine Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino identify his fellow Philippine Military Academy alumnus who supposedly offered a bribe. That person should face criminal charges for bribery, but Marcelino said he knew his “mistah” to be a good man and refused to identify the briber. PDEA officials also admitted that they had made up the story about a P50-million bribe to prosecutors, which was leaked to the press.
Inventing stories, planting evidence and hurling fake accusations is hardly the way to conduct an anti-crime campaign, whether it is against corruption or drug trafficking. As anti-drug czar, President Arroyo should require PDEA agents to have full knowledge of all laws governing illegal drugs, as well as all laws and regulations governing arrests, searches, raids and confiscation of evidence. As indignant prosecutors have pointed out, many drug cases are dismissed not because of corruption but because anti-narcotics agents do not know the law and bungle the operation. The PDEA itself has had its share of controversies in the past, from corruption to the pilferage of confiscated drugs and direct involvement of its agents in drug trafficking.
A serious anti-drug campaign should also strengthen the capability of the Philippine National Police, whose members have more knowledge of the Dangerous Drugs Act and the rules governing the conduct of anti-crime operations than the military officers and ex-coup plotters assigned to handle police work at the PDEA.
Finally, the anti-drug campaign should include improving facilities for rehabilitating drug offenders. The harshest penalties should be reserved for large-scale traffickers, most of whom seem to elude those much-hyped raids on shabu laboratories. Drug abuse is a social problem that requires a coordinated social response.