EDITORIAL - Stopping narco politics

If the national leadership truly wants to stop the spread of narco politics, there must be an honest-to-goodness effort to tighten regulation of financing for election campaigns.

Testimonies at the hearings conducted by the Senate and the House of Representatives in the past weeks indicate that drug money is being funneled to election campaigns, with winning candidates ensuring protection for the donors.

There is no paper trail; donations are delivered in cash. As in typical deals involving dirty money, no receipts are issued and no signatures or even thumb marks are required. Yesterday President Duterte said he believed drug money began financing political campaigns about two elections before the one last May – meaning in 2010.

Before this, jueteng money was widely suspected to have financed the campaigns of several candidates, a number of whom won handily, especially in local races. Several of the jueteng or gambling barons have retained their hold on political power in their turfs, secure in the thought that the government has neither the resources nor the interest to hold them accountable for laundering dirty money.

Election rules impose caps on campaign spending, and candidates are required to submit sworn statements of their campaign donations and expenditures. Such statements, however, are rarely verified, and campaign finance regulation in this country is largely a joke. Lawmakers have consistently resisted every sincere effort to regulate campaign financing.

Lawbreakers read the situation clearly and know that they can consequently hit two birds with one stone: launder dirty money and win political power. If notorious smugglers, gambling lords and even bank and armored van robbers can use crime proceeds to enter politics, why not drug traffickers? Initially, the drug dealers can merely contribute to campaign war chests. Like the jueteng lords, however, it’s not surprising that some of them will consider using drug money to win political power themselves.

This is a situation that won’t be remedied merely by executing drug dealers. If President Duterte wants his war on drugs to succeed, he must lean on his congressional allies to pass laws on campaign financing, and then see to it that the laws are strictly enforced.