EDITORIAL – Wiretapping to fight drug menace

There is a bill that is slowly and silently creeping toward approval without most of the public knowing. The proposed measure is House Bill 5839, authored by Rep. Vicente Belmonte of Iligan City. It seeks to amend Republic Act 4200 or the anti-wiretapping law. RA 4200 currently bans wiretapping unless ordered by the court in cases involving treason, rebellion, sedition and kidnapping. HB 5839 seeks to amend RA 4200 by adding drug dealing to the list of wiretapping exemptions.

Rep. Belmonte is confident his bill will be approved in plenary by October and that a counterpart bill filed by Senator Gringo Honasan would similarly enjoy smooth sailing in the upper chamber. Belmonte is correct in saying that the drug menace is perhaps the greatest current threat to society. It may be added to his observation that it is also one of the most neglected, in relation to the gravity of its threat.

It appears that government is far more interested in other things than illegal drugs. And when it does get interested, its pursuit never seems to match the interest. That is why, according to Belmonte, more than 60 percent of drug cases that reach the courts get dismissed, often on a technicality or lack of evidence. He believes allowing the authorities to wiretap drug suspects would strengthen their evidence gathering initiatives.

Wiretapping involving drug cases, however, is vastly different from wiretapping involving treason, rebellion, sedition or kidnapping. These four bases for legal, court-ordered wiretapping are not everyday, nationwide activities. It is not often that a person or groups of persons get suspected of treason, rebellion or sedition. Even kidnapping, while on the rise, has probably not reached the level where it can be described as a common occurrence.

But drug cases are everywhere. This country is almost up to its neck in the drug problem even if government never acted as if it knows it is. Therefore, if legal, court-ordered wiretapping is allowed, and granting government responds the way a young person responds to a fad, it can safely be foreseen that the courts will have nothing else to issue but drug wiretapping orders and the police nothing more interesting to pursue than listen in on their favorite drug suspects.

The purpose of the Belmonte bill, without argument, is good. But there could be dangerous pitfalls there, especially when it comes to the devil that lies in the implementation. This early it might already be asked - what constitutes a suspect? Clarifying this point is crucial because when it comes to issuing court orders, the courts may simply take the word of the police for it on the basis of presumption of regularity.

Simply put, while the bill is good, any window that might open up to abuse or misuse must be shut now while the bill is not yet a law. Remember, there are more likely drug suspects than there are traitors or rebels or kidnappers. Society is teeming with suspects. Like the sea teeming with fish, you no longer use a hook and a line. You use a net. The danger in a net is that you catch everything, even those not intended for catching.