Group 5

Number of Raids and Persons Arrested on Drug Incidents 1993 to 2009 by Jervin Gerzon Year 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Raids 5,122 2,282 2,022 1,393 1,849 1,483 12,215 7,956 16,991 20,024 23,305 24,778 10,720 8,677 8,627 8,427 9,709 Persons Arrested 6,538 3,490 3,113 2,050 3,079 2,722 20,110 11,004 18,367 25,076 33,150 26,635 16,158 11,535 10,710 10,530 9,052

SOURCE: http://www.nscb.gov.ph/secstat/d_safety.asp

Picture from Marro Mendoza

By Richard Limpin

Data for this chart and graph was gathered from: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/du.htm

Picture from Marro Mendoza

INITIATIVES IN DRUG ABUSE: PREVENTION AMONG CHILDREN by King Morales Demand reduction initiatives among all age groups, including youth, consisted of three approaches, according to the DDB. The first approach is primary prevention for non-users. With the Board as the lead agency, involved here are the Departments of Education, Labour and Employment; The Commission on Higher Education; and other government and non-government agencies. The mass media both broadcast and print, also play an important role here. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency conducted its own prevention education and information campaign for non-users from August 1 to December 31 2002. For this period alone, it held a total of 5,647 meetings and seminars nationwide in cooperation with schools, church groups, and local government units. The second approach is secondary prevention for experimenters and casual drug users. The Department of Health is the lead agency here, with support from the Department of Social Work and Community Development, the local government units and the Philippine National Police. The third approach is tertiary prevention for addicts and recovering persons. The Department of Health is also the lead agency here, supported by all law enforcement agencies, local governments and non-government organizations. Other Prevention Initiatives While the NDEP is the sole and major organisational effort of the government aimed at drug abuse education and prevention among children, especially in the schools, there have been similar efforts though sporadic and scattered, targeted at children at risk, such as those coming from poor families and communities as well as street children. Most of these efforts are undertaken by non-government organizations at the community level. Among the non-government organizations active in drug abuse prevention efforts are those supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)/World Health Organization (WHO) Global Initiative on Primary Prevention of Substance Abuse. These organizations include Addictus Philippines, Inc., Bidlisiw Foundation, Inc., Childhope Asia Philippines, Foundation for Adolescent Development, Inc., Foundation for Drug Information and Communication, Higala Association, Inc., Kahayag, Kaugmaon Centre for Childrens Concerns Foundation, Inc., Kauswagan Community Development and Social Development Centre, Kapatiran Komunidad Peoples Coalition (KKPC), METSA Foundation, Inc., Persons Enrichment Through Encounter and Response (PEER), and the Philippine Red Cross Youth Department. These organizations have their own projects usually involving one to four barangays in various cities nationwide, with support from the Global Initiative. These projects engage in training core groups of volunteers who would eventually implement outreach and street education activities. For example, Childhope Asia Philippines an organization that provides and organizes street-based education and shelter for street-children and community-based projects for children, is training children to become peer trainers and to be actively involved in mobilizing other children in the community through networking, training and outreach. www.mentorfoundation.org

Illegal-Drug Abuse Now an Epidemic in the Philippines

The use by young Filipinos of prohibited drugs like methamphetamine, crack cocaine, cocaine, opium and marijuana is now the countrys scourge. The abuse has reached epidemic, if not widespread, proportion, according to our unofficial sources in the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). And yet, the countrys national leadership is on a state of denial. Scions of affluent and/or influential families rarely face arrest and prosecution for drug abuse, as the countrys criminal-justice system is at the mercy of influence peddlers. Drug syndicates are able also to bribe some top Philippine civilian and/or militarypolice leaders to look the other way, if not share in the bounty (sic) of their nefarious activities.

This columnist wrote before about the immoral business of illegal-drug distribution in the Philippines. I wrote about the (alleged) participation of certain Filipino military and/or police officers in the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs in the Philippines and in allegedly providing support for the transshipment in Manila ports of the said drugs to the United States from certain Asian points of origin. To read the earlier Unsolicited Advice article in its entirety, please click on this link: It Is Time for Filipino Americans to Stop Playing Mr. Nice Guy

Even our columnist, former Board of Investments Governor Ben Sanchez, mentioned also the growing drug abuse in the Philippines. Please click on this link to read Governor Sanchezs article, There Are Still Filipinos who Dream of Something Better for the Philippines

Last July 10th, the Philippine media reported the arrest of 11 high-school students who were caught doing a pot session in Quezon City. The arrest was further proof of the escalating national problem that is drug addiction. And the arrested students obviously came from the ranks of the financially-distressed families. They could not afford to hold the pot session in a luxurious hotel or a mansion-like residence or condominium in one of the metropolitan areas premier locations that some scions of well-to-do families reportedly do on a regular basis. The Quezon-City students held their drug session only in a vacant lot.

Yet, the national leaders of the Philippines are using scarce resources of the national treasury in funding foreign trips of the Philippine President and her entourage and even the travel of many Filipino congressmen to Las Vegas, Nevada, to watch a boxing bout. To read our satire of the congressional junkets to the worlds entertainment capital, please go to Defending Filipino Congressmen and Politicians Who See Manny Pacquiaos Title Bouts in Vegas

The Filipino leaders must take seriously the business of governance, the issue of drug abuse, in particular, and the fundamental structural reforms for government functions, in general. At the rate things are going in the homeland, Philippine society may find itself someday in total stupor with many of the countrys youth acting like Zombies because of their drug dependence. By then Jose P. Rizals words that the youth is the hope of the fatherland may amount to an exercise in futility, if not frivolity.

Here are excerpts from GMANews.TVs news report . . . Eleven high-school students caught in pot session

07/10/2008 | 07:36 AM

MANILA, Philippines - At least 11 high-school students were brought to a police station after they were caught smoking marijuana in a vacant lot in Quezon City Wednesday night. DZBB's Mao dela Cruz reported Thursday morning that the boys and girls, aged 14 to 17, were still in the first to fourth year high school. Quezon City police chief Sr. Supt. Magtanggol Gatdula said some of the students were even wearing uniforms of the Quezon City High School when they were caught in the pot session. Gatdula said the students were brought to Police Station 10 and would be turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Source: http://www.mabuhayradio.com/unsolicited-advice/illegal-drug-abusenow-an-epidemic-in-the-philippines