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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
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MANILA – Using drop boxes to report suspected illegal drug personalities is “foolish and dangerous,” according to Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
Through its Masa Masid antidrug program, the Department of the Interior and Local Government ordered local government units to provide boxes where anyone may drop names of people suspected to be engaged in the drug trade.
Hontiveros said this scheme is “prone to malice and abuse” and “unilateral and arbitrary.”
Without a credible system for vetting, case-building and exacting accountability, this strategy exposes those named in the drop boxes vulnerable to extrajudicial killings, she said.
Making “pieces of paper” the “sole basis for inclusion in so-called drug lists” and arrests and police operations “could lead to unnecessary deaths,” she said.
Moreover, Hontiveros said she will push for the realignment of the Masa Masid’s P500-million allocation in the proposed 2018 Interior department budget.
Masa Masid is an acronym that means “Mamamayang Ayaw Sa Anomalya, Mamamayang Ayaw Sa Iligal na Droga.”
The allocation will instead be spent for the strengthening of the public health approach in addressing the drug problem, she said.
“What we expect from the government is modern, rules-based and human rights-centric drug law enforcement, not a witch hunt,” said Hontiveros./PN
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