By Rene Acosta, Jonathan L. Mayuga, Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco and Joel R. San Juan
The government’s campaign against illegal drugs, which is being spearheaded by the Philippine National Police (PNP), has become vicious and brutal. At least 120 suspected drug pushers have been killed around the country since former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte assumed the presidency.
Desperate times need desperate measures. That’s how Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa of the PNP view the country’s illegal-drugs problem. This is in line with President Duterte’s proclamation that, unless the country is rid of illegal drugs, hopefully within six months, the Philippines could become a narcotics state.
Both the PNP and the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) admitted that fighting illegal drugs, which is already a multibillion-peso business that has corrupted the ranks of law-enforcement agencies and local chief executives, remains a top priority of the Duterte administration.
Illegal drugs are a lucrative business in the country, according to former PNP chief Director General Ricardo C. Marquez. He said the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) of the PNP alone has confiscated at least P600 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, and marijuana in 11 major operations in 2015.
High-value targets
Former PDEA Director General Arturo G. Cacdac Jr. said the government has arrested a big number of high-value drug personalities last year compared with 2014, indicating that the illegal-drugs business has attracted more players.
Cacdac said for the whole 2015, various law-enforcement units arrested 19,406 drug personalities, from a total of 24,462 anti-drug operations. Of the arrested individuals, 1,821 are considered high-value targets (HVTs).
Of the 1,821 HVTs, 37 are foreigners, 103 are government employees, 63 are elected officials, 31 are law enforcers, 102 are leaders and members of drug groups, 248 are drug-den owners, 10 are members of armed groups, six are target-listed suspects and 47 are wanted-listed suspects.
Cacdac said the number of operations that were carried out in 2015 was 44.4 percent more than the 16,939 operations conducted in 2014, where 13,792 drug personalities were arrested, along with the dismantling of 114 drug dens and the destruction of 506 marijuana sites.
Cacdac said that in 2013, the PDEA and other law-enforcement agencies seized 834 kilos of shabu worth P4.6 billion, erasing their record haul of 112 kilos in 2012.
This surpassed the 578 kilos of shabu that were confiscated from 2009 to 2012.
Alarming problem
The country’s illegal-drugs problem, the PDEA said, has already affected at least 20.51 percent, or 8,629, of the country’s 42,065 barangays as of the first quarter of last year. Estimates, however, said this could have increased, considering that more and more drug laboratories were uncovered.
Of the regions where illegal drugs are prevalent, Metro Manila, or the National Capital Region, remains on top, followed by Region 4A, or the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.
The situation in Metro Manila is so alarming that 92 percent of all barangays in the metropolis were affected by illegal drugs like shabu, which is priced from P3,000 to P10,000 per gram, depending on quality.
According to PNP Spokesman Senior Supt. Dionardo B. Carlos, at least 192 drug pushers have been killed while 35,276 drug personalities have surrendered to authorities from May 10 to July 11, 2016.
An additional 8,110 persons of interest, including drug pushers and users, were also arrested.
Influx of drug dependents
Since the crackdown on illegal drugs started, thousands of self-confessed drug users and suspected pushers have surrendered to authorities, seeking government protection and help.
The influx of drug users and pushers surrendering to authorities caught the government unprepared. Nobody expected such huge numbers of drug users coming out in the open. After being listed by the PNP, however, they are sent back home without being charged for a criminal offense. This highlights the fact that the country’s drug-abuse problem is much bigger than what the authorities imagined.
Apparently, there are not enough facilities for those who voluntarily submitted themselves for treatment.
Local government officials entered the picture by promising their drug-dependent constituents livelihood support if they stop using or selling prohibited drugs like shabu.
Most local government units admitted they do not have a drug-prevention and -rehabilitation program to speak off.
The cost of seeking treatment at private drug-rehabilitation centers is also a big problem, as most of those who surrendered are jobless and belong to poor families that cannot afford the treatment.
According to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), there are currently 45 residential treatment and rehabilitation facilities in the country, 18 of which are government-run and 27 are privately owned.
There are only three outpatient centers, two of which are privately owned.
Quezon City’s ‘Tahanan’
The Quezon City government, which has one of the most successful antidrug-abuse prevention and rehabilitation programs in the country, was surprised at the number of drug dependents coming out in the past several weeks.
The Tahanan Quezon City Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Payatas, Quezon City, can only accommodate 150 patients.
The rehab center has been fully booked, even before the Quezon City Police District’s antidrug-abuse campaign started.
Conceptualized by then-Quezon City Vice Mayor Vicente Y. Sotto III, the Tahanan was established in the 1980s and has since become one of first local government unit (LGU)-owned and -managed drug-rehabilitation centers duly accredited by the Department of Health (DOH).
With its P50-million annual budget, the facility is manned by 70 personnel, including security guards, house parents and support staff helping in the day-to-day activities of patients.
Flood of drug dependents
In an interview, Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, who heads the Quezon City Anti-Drug Abuse Council, said as of July 7, a total of 2,093 drug dependents have voluntarily surrendered to the Quezon City Police Department.
“Our facility can accommodate 150. As of July, 2,093 [drug dependents] have surrendered. These are just the first two batches that surrendered,” she said.
According to Belmonte, 283 of those who surrendered have undergone drug-dependency evaluation.
“Not all who surrendered need to undergo rehab. It depends on their drug-use abuse. If they are drug users, they do not need to undergo rehabilitation. Only those who are drug dependents or addicted to drugs need rehabilitation,” Belmonte said.
Of the 283 who were evaluated so far, 73 are considered drug dependents and need to be rehabilitated. The rest are recommended to undergo counseling.
Big space, limited capacity
According to Belmonte, while the Quezon City government has a big space to increase its capacity, the current bed-space capacity of the Tahanan is limited.
Expanding the Tahanan’s capacity, she said, will require DOH approval.
“I have already visited the DOH. Hopefully, by next week, the DOH will approve our request for additional 150-bed space,” she said.
But this will require additional cost for facility improvement, as well as hiring of more personnel.
“Hopefully, by next week, the DOH will allow us to increase our capacity to 300,” she said.
Private drug-rehab centers
Belmonte said to accommodate more drug dependents, she plans to talk to private drug-rehabilitation centers operating within the city to ask for their help.
“I will ask them to adopt 10 drug dependents each. We have five private drug-rehabilitation centers in QC,” she said.
A private drug-rehabilitation center, she said, normally charges patients P30,000 a month.
“I will ask the private drug-rehabilitation centers to adopt at least 10 as part of their corporate social responsibility. But I will still think of incentives for them to agree to that somehow,” she said.
Belmonte said the local government of Quezon City cannot shoulder such additional cost.
Rehabilitation of drug dependents in Tahanan, she said, would have cost drug dependents around P400 a day, or P12,000 a month.
“Because Quezon City is well off, hopefully, our mayor will give us more budget to increase our capacity,” she said.
DOH regulation
Increasing the capacity of Tahanan, she noted, would also mean increasing the number of health professionals providing patients the needed care under the standards set by the DOH.
For every 50 patients, she said at least one DOH-accredited psychologist, one social worker and one nurse are needed.
Belmonte said, “I can only fathom as to the situation of other local government units. QC is quite well off, that is why we have funds for our drug-prevention and drug-rehabilitation program. What about the other LGUs with no funds?”
Since the Quezon City government has the needed funds, the rehabilitation at the Tahanan is free, according to Rowena Macatao, a member of the Quezon City Anti-Drug Abuse Council and manager of the Tahanan.
Macatao, however, said despite the budget allotted by the local government to run the facility, the management of Tahanan has to abide by the DOH’s strict regulation.
“We are now fully packed and drug dependents are lining up now. Before the antidrugs campaign of the Quezon City Police Department, there are already 38 drug dependents seeking treatment who are on our waiting list,” she said.
As early as last year, the Tahanan has already requested for temporary permit to accommodate more patients, but the DOH requires the hiring of more staff to expand their capacity.
“Every 10 patients, there should be a caseload manager,” she said.
Macatao said hiring of additional staff would require the enactment of a city ordinance, as well as a requirement by the DOH.
“We have the facility, and we are in the process of complying with the requirement,” Macatao added.
According to Belmonte, with increased funding, the Quezon City government would be able to address the challenge posed by the increasing number of drug dependents who are currently seeking government help.
Comprehensive framework
Health Secretary Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial, meanwhile, said the agency is formulating a comprehensive framework where building and equipping more rehabilitation centers would be one of the DOH’s immediate concerns.
Ubial said the agency’s P154-billion budget for 2017 would be used not only to provide health care to fight diseases, but also to upgrade and expand rehabilitation centers and provide health centers, especially to the poor.
“The most feasible way we are looking into is a community-based program for the very large number of those who surrendered, who will be coming out for treatment for their drug dependence, that they don’t have to go to the institution,” Ubial said.
Ubial also called on all government units and citizens to voluntarily bring drug users, or encourage them to surrender to rehabilitation centers.
“We will design a program where they can just stay in the community. But we will ensure that they have the proper management,” she added.
Criminal culpabilities
Surrender does not mean absolution from criminal culpabilities. This is the policy stance of the Department of Justice (DOJ) with regard to thousands of surrendering drug users and pushers amid the Duterte administration’s all-out war against illegal drugs.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II said an investigation would have to be conducted first to determine the extent of the surrenderees’ involvement in illegal-drugs activities.
“If they surrender, they have to be investigated, because they have to cooperate with the police and pinpoint their companions in the illegal-drugs trade,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre explained that while the nonfiling of charges against drug suspects was offered as a condition for their surrender, the government should still abide by the laws.
“We cannot allow them to surrender and just go back to their old ways later on after release [from detention],” he said.
He also believes that rehabilitation of drug users might no longer be feasible for some, particularly those whose brains have been affected by their addiction to illegal drugs.
“Under the law, they are not yet off the hook,” he explained, citing the provisions of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
However, Section 15 of the same law provides that second-time offenders shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment of six years and one day to 12 years, and a fine ranging from P50,000 to P200,000.
But second-time offenders found to be in possession of at least 50 grams of shabu, 10 grams of ecstasy or 500 grams of marijuana shall suffer the penalty of life imprisonment, and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P10,000,000.
Shock and awe
At the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), considered as the center of 75 percent of drug transactions in the country, Aguirre is set to deliver a “shock and awe” tactic to paralyze the criminal operations inside the prison facility, which is under the DOJ.
Aguirre said this strategy would replace the regular raids being conducted by authorities inside the prison facility under Oplan Galugad, which has failed to neutralize the various illegal operations in the NBP.
The justice secretary lamented the country’s penal facility being used as a drug den, despite the series of raids during the past administration.
Since November last year, the DOJ, led by then-Justice Secretary and now Sen. Leila M. de Lima, together with operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation and elite police forces, had conducted a total of 30 raids under Oplan Galugad.
Illegal drugs, weapons and ammunition, huge amount of money, various appliances and other prohibited items have been seized during these raids.
Part of the shock-and-awe strategy, according to the DOJ chief, is the changing of guards at the NBP.
Only last Tuesday, a battalion of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) was deployed to guard against illegal-drugs operations and other prohibited activities happening inside the NBP.
Aguirre said the 320 SAF troops would be scattered around the maximum-security compound, where life-term prisoners, political prisoners and other notorious criminals are detained.
The DOJ chief added that the SAF men would closely monitor the activities at Building 14, where high-profile convicts and other “hard core” criminals have been detained in isolation.
“We will begin with the maximum security and Building 14 with one battalion or 320 troops. But the whole of NBP will be taken over,“ Aguirre said.
He is optimistic that their presence will deter proliferation of illegal drugs and other prohibited activities inside the facility.
The NBP was opened in 1940 and originally meant to house 8,400 inmates. At present, however, some 14,500, out of the 22,800 inmates, are detained at its maximum-security compound alone.
The other inmates are detained at the medium- and minimum-security compounds.
The DOJ is eyeing the transfer of the NBP to Nueva Ecija through the construction of a P50.2-billion prison facility that can accommodate 26,800 inmates.
Aside from the deployment of SAF and Marine personnel, the DOJ is also looking at the likelihood of isolating high-profile inmates on a remote island to eventually prevent them from conducting their illegal operations while serving their sentence.
“Meron na kaming kino-consider na ilang isla sa Palawan na talagang walang signal,” Aguirre said.
He believes that depriving the prisoners of access to mobile phones and blocking signals for the Internet is the key to stop their operations.
Retraining of prison guards
Meanwhile, prison guards, officers and employees will be subjected to retraining, reeducation and reassignment.
Once this is done, Aguirre said they will be assigned to the other operating units of the Bureau of Corrections, which include Abuyog Penal Colony in Leyte; Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City; Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa in Palawan; Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro; San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga City; and the Davao Prison and Penal Farm.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez, AP/Aaron Favila