Philippines

2009 Drug War

In January 2009 President Gloria Arroyo appointed herself as Philippines drug czar. She ordered government agencies to prepare for a war against traffickers, and mandated student drug testing in every Filipino school, private or public. Triggering her actions was the “Alabang Boys” scandal, in which three ecstasy traffickers were acquitted despite strong evidence. The verdicts led to suspicions that the prosecution was rigged, and Arroyo suspended five prosecutors pending investigation.

The drug problem was much greater than just rigged trials. The Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) filed 100,000 drug cases in five years, and 78,000 were still awaiting adjudication. Arroyo stated that there would be no more delayed trials and business as usual in police work. She sent her executive secretary to tell reporters that law enforcement agencies had received instructions to prepare an order of battle, a set of specific actions against large-scale traffickers and immediate identification of the traffickers themselves. There would be no exceptions, no matter how prominent or powerful the targets. The return to random drug testing in schools, which was the practice between 2003 and 2005, began almost immediately.

Arroyo's decision to become czar was due to the lackluster prosecution effort of the PDEA. Of those cases it had resolved, 27 percent resulted in acquittals and 31 percent in conviction. The government lost at least 6,000 cases in five years. Reasons included weak evidence, no-show witnesses, inconsistent testimony, and irregularities in arrest, search and seizure. PDEA and national police agents were often absent from the prosecution because they were assigned to other areas. Another failure was noncompliance with the laws regarding custody and disposition of drugs, precursors, chemicals, and paraphernalia.

The government promised that this campaign would not end quickly as previous campaigns. This time there would be changes to the laws and a restructuring of the PDEA—changes that would make the effort long term.

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