Illegal drugs: Pres. Duterte’s biggest failure

AS Pres. Duterte leaves office after the end of his term next year, he would be leaving many accomplishments that he and his Cabinet can be truly proud of—a resilient economy despite the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, a communist insurgency on its death throes, a more stable peace and order situation in all parts of the country, an infrastructure program that truly encompass all parts of the country, etc., etc.

However, there is one important campaign promise that he made in 2016 that he has clearly failed: his ‘War on Drugs,’ a campaign that is closely linked with his ‘War on Corruption.’

There is reason to believe that clandestine shabu laboratories, an embarrassing feature of the country’s illegal drugs landscape under Pres. Noynoy Aquino, have all been actually eliminated by now.

But to say that drug smuggling, which also became the norm under Aquino’s watch, has also been stopped would be a lie—just look at the increasing volume of ‘offshore smuggled drugs’ being apprehended by the authorities in just 2 days this month: 809 kilos worth more than P5.525 billion.

Of course, this accomplishment by the PNP and PDEA deserves everyone’s congratulations.

But should we be contented by this? Given the fact that the seized drugs and many kilos more before them, clearly showed that we are now not only a market but more likely, again the distribution center in other parts of the world for the world’s biggest criminal organization, the Sam Gor Drug Syndicate (SGDS)?

All these apprehended drugs, although found in separate areas and provinces bore Sam Gor’s ‘trademarked’ wrapping: yellow and green Chinese tea packs.

According to reports on Sam Gor’s activities that I read, the packaging is purposely done this way in order to differentiate the drugs from other sources and so that the “buyer” can ‘reimburse’ his expenses with the syndicate should the shipment be seized.

In other words, Sam Gor has become so rich (about US$17 billion in annual income) that it can make a ‘guarantee-against-seizure’ for its clients.

And are the PDEA and PDEG really apprehending each and every gram of Sam Gor’s drugs? It is common practice for international drug cartels to let the authorities “apprehend” a sizeable amount of illegal drugs while the bigger volume continue to pass undisturbed under the very noses of the authorities.

Just look at the practices of the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels in their smuggling of illegal drugs to the United States.

And the SGDS, according the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and the Interpol, is much, much bigger than their Mexican and Colombian “allies.”
Our question therefore is, how did it come to pass that given Pres. Duterte’s notoriety or popularity (depending on which side of the political fence one is sitting) over the issue of illegal drugs, we ended up being the main market and distribution center for SGDS drugs?

As this is our present reality now, it is clear that all those deaths, particularly from the side of law enforcers resulting from the drug war that started in 2016, have all been for nothing.

The illegal drugs business has not stopped and it is more entrenched now than ever before. In this area, Pres. Duterte has clearly failed us.