Stronger war vs illegal drugs expected

MANILA, Philippines - Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Vicente Sotto III is expecting the national government to wage a stronger war against illegal drugs now that Agnes Devanadera is at the helm of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Sotto expressed belief that Devanadera will keep an eye on drug-related cases being filed by law enforcement agencies as well as those already undergoing trial before criminal courts.

“She is an anti-drug advocate,” he told The STAR, saying her act of recalling Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez’s midnight order, which called for the withdrawal of a complaint against a known drug laboratory financier in La Union, is proof that the new Justice chief is an ally of the DDB.

Officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 3 assailed Gonzalez’s resolution absolving one Joselito Artuz who was nabbed in a raid in Barangay Bimotobot, Naguilian, La Union in July 2008.

Sotto, meanwhile, announced that the DDB is now shifting its focus towards upgrading drug rehabilitation and treatment centers all over the country.

Aside from millions of pesos in financial assistance, the program also includes training workshops and seminars for workers and health experts who are helping drug abuse victims fight drug addiction.

“This is one of the most important pillars of the (overall) approach against illegal drugs,” Sotto said after donating P10 million to a Treatment and Rehabilitation Center run by the Department of Health (DOH) in Bicutan, Taguig.

He said the grant of financial aid to the facility starts a series of efforts to also fund other similar institutions for the rehabilitation, upgrade, and construction of new buildings.

At present there are only about 48 rehabilitation and treatment centers in the country with half being run by the government.

Though there are about the same number of other centers waiting to be accredited, Sotto noted that there are still no drug rehabilitation centers in Regions 2, 12, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

He said the DDB hopes to help increase the number of accredited drug rehabilitation centers nationwide using available funds and other resources.

“We try to scrape the bottom of our available funds to spend on them,” Sotto said, adding that there will be more financial aid to other treatment facilities soon.

Those who will be granted financial assistance include the Rizal Medical Center’s drug treatment facility in Bicutan, Taguig; the city government of Iligan; the province of La Union; the Negros Occidental Drug Rehabilitation Foundation Inc.; the Bataan Drug Rehabilitation Center; and the Maliano Regional Drug Rehabilitation Center in Albay.

Aside from prosecuting drug traffickers, dealers, and pushers, the DDB has been putting emphasis on the importance of drug prevention and awareness in order to rescue drug users and help them live new lives.

Sotto pushed for the conduct of random drug testing for students despite criticisms over how the DDB is focusing on users instead of pushers.

He said prevention and rehabilitation is as important as the law enforcement and prosecutorial approach of fighting illegal drugs.

He stressed that one effective way to battle illegal drugs is to use a demand reduction strategy which seeks to lower if not completely put a stop to the demand in order to cripple the supply aspect, thereby resulting in an attack against the dealers, manufacturers, and pushers.