MANILA – Opposition Sen. Franklin Drilon said the admission of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on the rampant recycling of illegal drugs only showed that the administration’s “war on drugs” was a failure.
Drilon added that PDEA chief Aaron Aquino’s admission – that confiscated drugs were recycled with the assistance of law enforcers – is “worrisome.”
“I am disgusted and dismayed by the report of the PDEA that recycling of ‘shabu’ is rampant,” Drilon said. “Given that admission, I am not very optimistic about the success of the antidrug campaign, in general.”
“This is worrisome. This is a decades-old case of bantay-salakay, wherein the people who are given the task of enforcing the law insofar as drug trafficking is concerned are the ones who lead the anomalous practices,” he added.
Drilon said during his time as the Department of Justice secretary, he has heard “unbelievable and absurd” alibis when he would question police officers how the confiscated illegal drugs differ from the amount of drugs presented as court evidence.
“When I was secretary of Justice and this was years ago, I already heard of this when we would call our witness and confront him on the missing amount of drugs confiscated, he would say, ‘Sir, kinain po ng daga,’” he added.
“Unfortunately today, it is even on a larger scale, mukhang mas malaki ang mga daga ngayon,” he added after Aquino revealed that around P22-billion of “shabu” are still in the inventory of the PDEA.
“The temptation is always there. You have to spend a lot of budget in order to make sure that this does not happen, but it can be prevented by destroying the drugs, within the period required and with proper authorization,” Drilon said.
He added he will request the Office of the Court Administrator to give special attention and more rigorous enforcement of the law on the burning of drugs confiscated as he plans to move for an additional budget for the PDEA to reopen its unit in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City./PN