Columns Unsolicited Advice Illegal-Drug Abuse Now an Epidemic in the Philippines
| Illegal-Drug Abuse Now an Epidemic in the Philippines |
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| Columns - Unsolicited Advice | |||
| Monday, 14 July 2008 02:05 | |||
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The use by young Filipinos of prohibited drugs like methamphetamine, crack cocaine, cocaine, opium and marijuana is now the country’s scourge. The abuse has reached epidemic, if not widespread, proportion, according to our unofficial sources in the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). And yet, the country’s national leadership is on a state of denial. Scions of affluent and/or influential families rarely face arrest and prosecution for drug abuse, as the country’s criminal-justice system is at the mercy of influence peddlers. Drug syndicates are able also to bribe some top Philippine civilian and/or military-police leaders to look the other way, if not share in the bounty (sic) of their nefarious activities.
This columnist wrote before about the immoral business of illegal-drug distribution in the Philippines. I wrote about “the (alleged) participation of certain Filipino military and/or police officers in the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs in the Philippines and in allegedly providing support for the transshipment in Manila ports of the said drugs to the United States from certain Asian points of origin.” To read the earlier “Unsolicited Advice” article in its entirety, please click on this link: It Is Time for Filipino Americans to Stop Playing “Mr. Nice Guy”
Even our columnist, former Board of Investments Governor Ben Sanchez, mentioned also the growing drug abuse in the Philippines. Please click on this link to read Governor Sanchez’s article, There Are Still “Filipinos who Dream of Something Better for the Philippines”
Last July 10th, the Philippine media reported the arrest of 11 high-school students who were caught doing a pot session in Quezon City. The arrest was further proof of the escalating national problem that is drug addiction. And the arrested students obviously came from the ranks of the financially-distressed families. They could not afford to hold the pot session in a luxurious hotel or a mansion-like residence or condominium in one of the metropolitan areas’ premier locations that some scions of well-to-do families reportedly do on a regular basis. The Quezon-City students held their drug session only in a “vacant lot.”
Yet, the national leaders of the Philippines are using scarce resources of the national treasury in funding foreign trips of the Philippine President and her entourage and even the travel of many Filipino congressmen to Las Vegas, Nevada, to watch a boxing bout. To read our satire of the congressional junkets to the world’s entertainment capital, please go to Defending Filipino Congressmen and Politicians Who See Manny Pacquiao’s Title Bouts in Vegas
The Filipino leaders must take seriously the business of governance, the issue of drug abuse, in particular, and the fundamental structural reforms for government functions, in general. At the rate things are going in the homeland, Philippine society may find itself someday in total stupor with many of the country’s youth acting like Zombies because of their drug dependence. By then Jose P. Rizal’s words that the “youth is the hope of the fatherland” may amount to an exercise in futility, if not frivolity.
Here are excerpts from GMANews.TV’s news report . . . “Eleven high-school students caught in pot session
“07/10/2008 | 07:36 AM
“MANILA, Philippines
- At least 11 high-school students were brought to a police station after they
were caught smoking marijuana in a vacant lot in Quezon
City Wednesday night.
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| Last Updated on Monday, 14 July 2008 02:08 |
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MANILA, - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has issued Administrative Order No. 279 creating an inter-agency task force for the prevention of Filipinos being used as drug couriers by international drug trafficking syndicates.
In creating the task force, the President said that the state is mandated to promote the welfare of overseas Filipinos pursuant to Republic Act No. 8402, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.
According to her, it is of critical importance that the state safeguard public interest and protect migrant Filipinos from the tactics of international drug trafficking syndicates.
”There is an alarming increase in the number of Filipinos who have been enticed, duped and subsequently recruited to act as drug couriers by international drug trafficking syndicates,” AO 279 noted.
It added: ”Many of the Filipinos recruited as drug couriers have been apprehended by police authorities and are now facing stiff penalties, with some of them meted with death sentences by foreign courts.”
President Arroyo also stressed in the administrative order the need to conduct an intensive and unrelenting campaign against drug syndicates responsible for victimizing the Filipinos as drug couriers.
”The fight against illegal drugs is a gargantuan task where all available government resources should be utilized and concerned law enforcement agencies must coordinate closely and act jointly to ensure the implementation of a holistic and unified anti-drug program that will address the problem of drug couriers,” she said.
The Administrative Code of 1987 provides that the President has the continuing authority to reorganize the administrative structure of the executive branch of the government.
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Philippines’ narcotics trade placed at $8.4B
By Cynthia Balana
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:02:00 03/03/2010
MANILA, Philippines—The US State Department has expressed deep concern that drug money could affect the outcome of the May 10 elections in the Philippines.
In its 2010 international narcotics control strategy report released in Washington on Tuesday, the state department said the Philippines’ drug problem continued to pose a significant national threat, despite reports of a possible decline in the supply and demand of illegal drugs in parts of the country.
The annual report to the US Congress, prepared in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act, said that foreign-based drug trafficking operations remained the biggest challenge to Philippine law enforcement.
“With the upcoming 2010 elections there is fear that illicit narcotics funds may affect election results,” the 668-page report said on the section on the Philippines.
“The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has publicly expressed fears that illicit narcotics money could influence the 2010 elections, and has pledged to pursue any evidence of such influence in order to be able to carry out arrests,” it said.
The report described the efforts of key countries to attack all aspects of the international drug trade in 2009, covering drug and chemical control activities, as well as money laundering and financial crimes.
The value of illegal drugs trafficked in the Philippines was placed at $6.4 billion to $8.4 billion annually. The top three areas most affected were Cebu, northern Mindanao and Metro Manila.
Down to 1.7M drug users
The number of drug users in the Philippine, however, was estimated to have dropped from a high of 6.7 million to 1.7 million.
The average age of drug abusers is 28 of whom 57 percent are single, and 34 percent are unemployed. Male drug users outnumber females 9:1.
The report said the production of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu,” in the Philippines was now primarily carried out in kitchen-type clandestine laboratories, rather than the large “mega-labs” previously seen.
While marijuana remains the second choice of drug users behind methamphetamine, Ecstasy users have increased in Manila, and usage has spread to other regions of the country where there are affluent families and tourists, it said.
The report likewise noted that transnational drug groups such as the West African drugs syndicate continued to infiltrate the Philippines and recruit overseas Filipino workers as drug couriers to smuggle and transport illegal drugs to China, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Transit point
Also, traffickers increasingly took advantage of the Philippines’ long and porous maritime borders to use the country as a transit point for high-grade cocaine and heroin shipments, primarily from India and Pakistan, the report said.
The report further said that the Philippines was a likely source of methamphetamine for other countries in East Asia and Oceania such as Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
In addition, the Philippines was described as a primary source of methamphetamine for Guam and Hawaii. It said the Philippines “produces, consumes and likely exports marijuana,” which is currently the second most-used drug in the country.
Marijuana remains the “starter drug,” and is also considered as an alternative choice when crystal methamphetamine is not available.
The report said that corruption continued to pose a problem in Philippine law enforcement due to low pay and lack of training, although law enforcement officials were trying to address this problem.
“The slow judicial process not only demoralizes law enforcement personnel, but also enables drug dealers to continue their drug business between court dates,” the report said.
It added that a dearth of financial resources had also hampered PDEA’s efforts to curb the illegal drug menace. # # #
http://narcononphilippines.blogspot.com/
IT IS VERY DANGEROUS TO OUR HEALTH... SO THINK POSITIVELY BECAUSE IT IS EASY TO ENTER BUT SO DIFFICULT TO GET OUT.. THUS, WHEN YOU START USING IT, YOU WILL GONNA FIND SOME WAY TO FIND IT..