Illegal drugs, election laws revision sought

ORMOC CITY ,Philippines  — Representative Lucy Torres-Gomez (4th dist., Leyte) this week filed in Congress a resolution seeking to amend a provision of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002, and to codify all previous election laws including the ones on automated polls.

The congresswoman decided to file the resolutions so that an inquiry will be set in motion "in aid of legislation." She was very concerned that the case against the Alabang Boys was junked on mere technicality and immediately asked people at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to brief her on what happened.

Even the PDEA itself has "complained" about the "impossible requirements" under the law, a situation that Lucy said should compel Congress to revisit the law for possible amendments for more realistic and effective enforcement.

"There is an urgent need to review our existing legislation on prohibited drugs to fine-tune it and remove any unjustified but nagging suspicions that court cases are being decided either strictly or liberally decided depending on political or non-legal considerations," she said.

Lucy further sought to have all election laws of the land codified or blended into a new Omnibus Code, taking note that the country now has adopted automation.

In her resolution, Lucy states: "There is an urgent need to codify anew our various statutes on elections in order to (1) address the confusion and difficulties arising from the fragmented state of our laws; (2) put forth in bold relief which provisions of the old manual election laws are still applicable today in view of the advent of the automated electoral system; and (3) integrate into our statutes recent developments in jurisprudence on elections."

She said, "it is more prudent and expedient to mandate the Comelec to draft a new omnibus election code and submit the same to Congress, given the former's technical expertise in this field of law."

Meanwhile, two weeks earlier, Lucy filed a bill dubbed as the "Lemon Law" penalizing car manufacturers and dealers selling defective cars. Another bill she filed sought to allow PTV-4, the government TV, to accept paid ads to help in the upkeep of its maintenance. These bills was one of the 15 that President PNoy Aquino had recently certified as urgent.