By Rene Acosta & Manuel T. Cayon
DAVAO CITY—Understanding the full reach of narcotics syndicate’s control of government bureaucracy has, for now, remained confined to trickles of information.
What trickled was that illegal-drugs criminals have long established a wide network in the villages, and its tentacles have reached as high as the key and senior posts in the police.
However, remained largely unknown, especially to authorities, was how coordinated the narcotics syndicates are as to fund candidacies of politicians in national elections. The bombing of the night market here on September 2, nonetheless, revealed these syndicates have the capability to fund terror attacks.
President Duterte repeated in several of his speaking tours that the full extent of the drug menace did not come to the full and scary awareness that no less than 3.7 million Filipinos are hooked on illegal drugs that not a few commit heinous crimes even against their own kin.
He admitted to being overwhelmed with the numbers, notably in those who surrendered and claimed to be users and pushers.
Mr. Duterte has told soldiers in Mawab, Davao del Norte, the long list of barangay captains has shown the full picture of the extent of control of narcotics syndicates in government bureaucracy. The Commander in Chief then said the war on drugs is becoming a war between “government versus government”.
“Now, it’s government functionaries who are now directing the distribution of drugs,” he said.
History of violence
THIS city has been through different phases of development, from an economically stagnant major urban center with less than a million residents in the 1980s. That number, however, declined, as residents fled to other areas and even abroad, to avoid the bloody conflict between the urban assassins of the New People’s Army and the state-sponsored armed vigilante group Alsa Masa (rising masses).
As members of these groups brought their war on the streets of Davao, bodies turned up along roads, dark alleys, grassy areas, vacant lots and inside houses. The only visible brisk economic activities were reported by pharmacies.
One urban slum area, called Agdao, was soon renamed to Nicaragdao, in reference to the violence that gripped Nicaragua that time. Agdao is the city’s largest slum area where many Sparrows were recruited and established mass bases. But it was also in one of the barangays there that the police and the military recruited locales to become their eyes and ears, and armed as members of vigilante group Alsa Masa.
The result of the conflict was the so-called dirty war, which was replicated in other urban centers in the country even after the 1986 People Power event that toppled dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.
The Alsa Masa lorded over Davao City after declaring the Sparrows neutralized. By mid-1990s the Alsa Masa members were still armed but no longer had an enemy.
Trade-off
BEFORE the turn of the century, a new face of city life emerged, especially when Davao City became the location for the founding of the East Asean Growth Area of four member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It was here that key officials of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines forged in 1994 an agreement for economic cooperation.
But as the immediate economic windfall was seen in the revival of construction and trading, the city government also warned of the emerging threat of the proliferation and sale of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu.
Called the poor man’s cocaine, shabu soon became the most sought-after substance abuse replacing marijuana. Authorities also raised the warning to a higher bar following findings that many crimes, including heinous ones, were committed under shabu use.
Intelligence fund
THEN-Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte mounted a relentless campaign to stamp the use of shabu, including naming the local drug addicts and pushers in his weekly television program, titled Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa.
There is no immediate estimate as to how much the city government spent on its war on drugs since then-Mayor Duterte began his crusade. However, it was also during this time that he sought a higher amount for his intelligence fund, which became the highest funded item in the annual budget since then.
In 2005 the city’s peace-and-order fund amounted to P311 million, which excluded P80 million, dubbed as intelligence fund.
Still, Mr. Duterte assured the City Council that the money has been spent literally for which it was named: intelligence gathering, including buying information to track the flow of shabu and locate criminals in high-profile crimes.
Armed response
MORE than a month into the presidency, Mr. Duterte admitted he was not prepared to see the numbers in his war against drugs. He added that he was taking stock only of his experience in Davao City. But the fact that he has involved the Armed Forces in this war, making it as a top priority, transformed narcotics-syndicate operations as threats to national security and no longer ordinary law-enforcement problems.
The immensity of the drug problem was amplified by President Duterte by saying that more than a thousand people, from the national government down to the local level, Congress, the Philippine National Police and even the Judiciary, are involved in the illegal-drugs trade.
Even the movie industry was penetrated by the problem, which is not unusual, with Mr. Duterte saying he also has a list.
So much is the President’s focused on his war on drugs, he told reporters here he wants the immediate approval of the 2017 budget to hasten the construction of rehabilitation centers even inside military camps.
To be concluded
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez