At the 2nd Regular Meeting of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs yesterday, it was confirmed that a key provision of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act has not been implemented decades after it took effect.
The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 created the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to take over the anti-illegal drugs operations of the PNP, the NBI, and Customs. To that end, section 86 of the Act abolished the PNP Narcotics Group, the NBI’s anti-narcotics division, and the Customs Narcotics Interdiction Unit and ordered the transfer, after screening, of their personnel to PDEA within 18 months.
“20 years have passed,” Diokno said, “but the anti-illegal drugs units of the PNP, NBI and Customs continue to operate; their personnel have not been transferred to PDEA; and the PDEA Academy, which Congress established to give operatives special training in conducting anti-illegal drugs operations, is operating on a shoestring budget.”
“That explains,” he added, “why many anti-drug operations of the PNP have been declared illegal by our courts. It also explains why the Government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign focuses mainly on small-time users, mostly from the marginalized sectors of our society.” Diokno cited a Decision where the Supreme Court declared:
It is lamentable that while our dockets are clogged with prosecutions under Republic Act No. 9165 involving small-time drug users and retailers, we are seriously short of prosecutions involving the proverbial “big fish.” We are swamped with cases involving small fry who have been arrested for miniscule amounts. While they are certainly a bane to our society, small retailers are but low-lying fruits in an exceedingly vast network of drug cartels. Both law enforcers and prosecutors should realize that the more effective and efficient strategy is to focus resources more on the source and true leadership of these nefarious organizations. Otherwise, all these executive and judicial resources expended to attempt to convict an accused for 0.05 gram of shabu under doubtful custodial arrangements will hardly make a dent in the overall picture. It might in fact be distracting our law enforcers from their more challenging task: to uproot the causes of this drug menace. We stand ready to assess cases involving greater amounts of drugs and the leadership of these cartels.”
--Lescano vs. People, G.R. No. 214490, January 13, 2016 (Leonen,J.)
“If the government is serious about enforcing a humane and just anti-illegal drugs campaign, it needs to professionalize our law enforcers who are at the forefront of the anti-dangerous drugs campaign and give PDEA the budget and plantilla it needs to do its job well,” Diokno added.
Diokno emphasized that this matter should be resolved by concerned government agencies, particularly the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), to ensure that the core component of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act is finally implemented.
“Dapat tiyakin na hindi magkakaroon ng problema ang existence ng PNP-DEG at PDEA. Nakakagulat na hindi pa pala ito naipatutupad, kahit noong panahon na naglunsad ng drug war ang nakalipas na pamahalaan,” Diokno said.
