DRUG SEMINAR FOR PASSPORT APPLICANTS: Exhaustive public consultation urged

CEBU, Philippines - The City Council is requesting the Dangerous Drugs Board to conduct an exhaustive public consultation on its proposal to require all passport applicants to attend a seminar on drugs law as a requisite for the issuance of a passport.

City Councilor Arsenio Pacaña said he passed the resolution requesting for the public consultation because many reportedly criticized the proposal. The Council subsequently approved the resolution.

DDB Chairman Clarence Paul Oaminal said the move to require those going out of the country either to work or for a vacation to attend a drugs law seminar could be an effective way to protect them from falling prey to drug syndicates.

The DDB said the move could be a deterrent to the reported increasing number of OFW’s being used as drug mules in other countries like in China.

Pacaña said that due to economic difficulties, some OFW’s resort to being couriers or drug mules. Some of them have been apprehended on different occasions.

“Reducing, if not eliminating, the transport of dangerous drugs to the country or to other countries is indeed laudable as it is foremost, the mission of various law enforcement agencies to protect the welfare of people from the global drug menace,” Pacaña’s resolution reads.

Still, Pacaña said that while the proposed move of DDB is laudable in itself, there are apprehensions that requiring all passport applicants, particularly those who are not OFW’s to attend a drugs law seminar may just add to the bureaucratic red tape, not to mention the added cost and delay in the release of passports. – Rene U. Borromeo/JMO   (FREEMAN NEWS)