Marikina tests limits of anti-drug warfare

It is a violation of human rights, but some believe desperate times call for desperate measures.

This in effect was what Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando admitted yesterday as the city government declared two streets in Barangay Concepcion I as "drug-risk areas."

"The human rights (of the innocent) will be violated but I'm appealing to them for a little sacrifice because I want the area cleaned up of drugs before it is too late," said Fernando.

There are at least 300 families residing on Singkamas and Mais streets in Sitio Tumana, Barangay Concepcion I. Not all of them, the mayor acknowledged, are drug users or pushers.

Visitors and even people simply passing through these areas are now required to present their identification cards and to state to the barangay chairman the purpose of their visit before they can enter.

The "drug quarantine operation," reminiscent of the military hamletting of suspected communist-infested villages in the countryside at the height of martial rule, is being implemented even as the nation's two top police officials continue to receive flak for their renewed anti-drug spray-painting campaign.

At least 26 congressmen filed a House resolution last weekend stating their opposition to the "scarlet letter" practice of Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim and Philippine National Police chief Director Panfilo Lacson in marking the houses of suspected drug users and pushers.

And the Nazi-inspired "yellow star" Polish ghetto may soon be revived in at least six other areas in Marikina City which have been listed by the city police chief Superintendent Leo Kison as "drug-risk." Fernando refused to name these areas pending the outcome of the campaign on Singkamas and Mais Streets.

Fernando admitted that City Ordinance No. 245, passed in 1997, was patterned after then Manila Mayor Lim's spray-painting drive with only a slight variation "for easy implementation."

The city government mobilized some 140 "bantay-bayan" to guard the entrances leading to the two streets.

Before a visitor can gain entry, he must ask permission from barangay officials so his name can be listed in the record book and his movements can be closely monitored.

This process, according to the mayor, would deny drug pushers their market for illegal drugs.

Authored by Councilor Leonardo Amores, the ordinance was first implemented in 1997. But with Lim's renewed spray-painting campaign, Fernando decided to revive the project to complement the interior secretary's war against drugs.

The mayor likewise stressed the need for the implementation of the controversial hamletting ordinance because his city is not yet free of drugs.

Last weekend, concerned residents of the Camanava (Caloocan-Malabon-Navatoas-Valenzuela) dared Lim to net some big fish that have been making their area a spawning ground for the drug culture.

The spray-painting campaign has thus far been conducted only in Manila, where there is a city ordinance allowing the implementation of the anti-drug measure.

Lim has encouraged local officials in other areas to pass a similar ordinance so that the campaign can also be implemented in their respective localities.

The response has mostly been lukewarm, and Lim and Lacson have come under a hail of criticism from human rights groups, constitutionalists and other sectors who instead dared them to net the big-time drug lords instead of harassing the small fry and the innocent. -