Drug trafficking, corruption prime sources of criminal activities in Phl – report

MANILA, Philippines – Human and drug trafficking, corruption, and investment scams have remained the principal sources of criminal activities in the Philippines, according to the 2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released yesterday.

The report also noted an increase in foreign organized criminal activities from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan and attributed the situation to the lack of judicial reform and low conviction rates for drug cases.

The annual US State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report said the Philippine government takes drug trafficking and drug abuse seriously and has made substantial efforts to address these problems, but the lack of law enforcement resources, the slow pace of judicial and investigative reform, together with a lack of interagency cooperation continue to hamper government efforts to investigate and prosecute higher echelons of drug trafficking organizations operating in the Philippines.

Despite these resource and institutional limitations, the report said Philippine law enforcement agencies continue to pursue drug traffickers aggressively.

“This effort, together with drug education and rehabilitation initiatives, has led to positive results in reducing drug abuse and drug trafficking in the Philippines.”

Observers believe that if the Philippines were to increase cooperation and coordination among drug law enforcement agencies such as Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the national level, it would have “a very positive impact on enforcement effectiveness.”

One example of a program that may bring big dividends is an airport-focused interagency program to counter drug couriers transiting Philippine airports and detect and deter persons going abroad acting as drug couriers.

The Philippines, a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, continues to face challenges in the areas of drug production, drug trafficking, and internal drug consumption, the report said.

It said the primary drug threats faced by the country are the importation, manufacture, and abuse of methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as shabu.

Philippine law enforcement, the report said, has been successful in eliminating the large-scale clandestine methamphetamine “super” laboratories in the past years.

Last year, no super labs were detected as transnational criminal groups apparently moved to establish smaller-scale clandestine methamphetamine laboratories that are easier to conceal.

Philippine law enforcement agencies have been successful in interdicting chemical shipments suspected to be destined for methamphetamine laboratories at the Port of Manila.

But high-grade methamphetamine produced in other countries continues to be smuggled into the Philippines by transnational drug traffickers.

In 2010, most of the seized shabu in the Philippines appeared to have been of foreign origin.

Although methamphetamine remains the primary drug of choice in the Philippines, marijuana is the second most abused drug.

But many drug users have shifted to using inhalants, the third most commonly abused substance, the report said.

However, the current price of cocaine ($106 per gram) remains cheaper than methamphetamine hydrochloride by weight.

The Philippines also serves on occasion as a transshipment point.

Last year, Philippine authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport detected and arrested 12 couriers leaving the Philippines with small quantities of drugs.

“Numerous arrests in South America and Asia during 2010 showed an increasing trend of Philippine citizens acting as drug couriers. It appears that these couriers were employed by international drug syndicates, and typically carried drugs from South America to Asia – although the drugs were generally not destined for the Philippines,” the report said.

As of August 2010, a total of 626 Filipinos had been arrested for drug trafficking offenses in other countries.

In Congress, deliberation continues on the creation of an Office of the Special Prosecutor for Dangerous Drugs (OSPDD) that will speed up judicial processes in narcotics-related cases.

The OSPDD would have exclusive jurisdiction over drug cases and be independent of political influence.

According to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), eight percent of drug cases are dismissed before going to trial, seven percent result in conviction, eight percent result in acquittal, and 76 percent remain unresolved.

Drug cases are often dismissed due to technicalities such as irregularity or illegality of arrest, non-appearance of witnesses, inconsistent testimonies of witnesses, mishandling of evidence, and unreliable police laboratories.

In March 2010, authorities arrested a Chinese national for drug trafficking but he was released due to such technicalities in a 2007 drug trafficking case. In October 2010, the court dismissed a two-year drug case against the son of the mayor of Manila because witnesses failed to appear at trial.

According to the DDB and local municipal officials, drug traffickers contracted with indigenous groups in remote mountainous locations in Luzon and Mindanao for cultivation of marijuana crops that were subsequently trafficked by the big-city criminals.

The Philippines is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the 1972 Protocol Amending the Single Convention.

The Philippines is also a party to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three protocols and the UN Convention against Corruption. –Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star)