Anti-drug czar?
Editorial
‘They are not funny and are not meant to be.’
Gloria Arroyo has named herself
as anti-drug following allegations that state prosecutors have accepted
bribes from arrested drug traffickers. It is a gesture signifying nothing or
of it means anything at all, an admission of her very own failure.
We cannot but suspect it is a PR stunt intended to shore up
her approval ratings which have been long searching for the bottom. Gloria
clearly wants to ride the wave of outrage over the coddling of traffickers by
the very officials sworn to lead the fight against the drug scourge. At the same
time, she is seeking to absolve herself of responsibility for her
administration’s sorry record in the war against drugs.
In naming herself anti-drug czar, she said: "We should not
allow this menace to spread its tentacles, ruin our youth and gnaw on the
integrity of our law enforcement institutions and our judicial systems. No other
criminal activity does a better and faster job of tearing apart the social and
security fabric of a nation than the trade of illegal drugs."
Well said. But where has she been all these years when
agencies mandated with waging the war of drugs have been sleeping on the job or,
worse, playing footsies with the enemy if we are to believe the latest
accusations against policemen, narcotics operatives, prosecutors and judges?
As president, she has control of all the executive
departments, bureaus and offices. She appoints all the heads of offices as well
as the members of the court. In the case of the Department of Justice and the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the two agencies now at the center of the
controversy, she personally picked the people leading these agencies.
Take Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. It is no secret his
health has been failing, precisely the reason the Palace has packed sub-Cabinet
DOJ positions with its own men. The failure of leadership ultimately should be
blamed on Arroyo.
The PDEA? It has become a sinecure for Gloria’s favorite
retired generals who also have the habit of bringing their own sets of favorites
with them. It is no wonder that PDEA operatives – if we are to believe
prosecutors – hardly have any idea on how to conduct arrests and searches that
would stand up in court.
We can already hear the jokes about Gloria as anti-drug czar. They have
something to do with the sharing of the reputed billions at the drug lords’
liberal disposal. They are not funny and are not meant to be. | 
