SENATE minority leader Vicente Sotto III has filed a proposed measure seeking the creation of the Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority to unify the agencies involved in the fight against illegal drugs and drug abuse.
Sotto said Senate Bill No. 190 filed last July 7, which seeks to amend RA 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, aims to create the PDEA since the “war against illegal drugs and drug abuse in our country failed to adopt a holistic approach to fully eradicate this menace in our society.
“The authorities focused only on enforcement and prosecution, which led only to significant casualties and dismissal of cases. Prevention and rehabilitation, which are equally important, were not implemented fully by the Department of Education and the Department of Health,” Sotto said in the bill’s explanatory note.
He said the proposed measure aims to unify the four major programs in the fight against illegal drugs and drug abuse — enforcement, prosecution, prevention, and rehabilitation — into a single government agency “since these four must be in sync.”
“A supervisory agency has to step in to monitor, coordinate and ensure that the concerned government agencies mandated to perform several duties under RA 9165 are doing their mandate effectively,” he added.
Under the bill, the PDEA will effectively dissolve the Dangerous Drugs Board and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority will absorb the policy-making and strategy-formulating functions of the DDB, while the existing powers and functions of PDEA on anti-drug enforcement shall be exercised by the PNP through its Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force or such other units under the police, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Customs, and the Narcotics Unit of the armed forces.
The PDEA shall be headed by a secretary, who will be appointed by the President, and shall be responsible for the general administration and management of the agency and “shall hold office at the pleasure of the President.”
It will also create bureaus, whose chiefs will also be appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the Secretary. Bureau chiefs, who will also serve at the pleasure of the President, will have a rank of undersecretary and shall receive compensation, allowances, and other emoluments to which undersecretaries are entitled.
The incumbent DDB chairman shall automatically be the Bureau Chief of Anti-Drug Policy Formulation, Guidelines, and Procedure, while the current PDEA chief shall be the Bureau Chief of the Anti-Drug Enforcement unit.
“The law, as presently formulated, needs retrofitting, so to speak, like any structure or machine in constant use for 23 years now… Supervision of enforcement activities is desirable to map out policies for more effective anti-illegal drugs campaigns,” said Sotto, who authored RA 9165.
Police seized P680,000 worth of suspected dangerous drugs and arrested two persons in a buy-bust operation in Cainta, Rizal, last Saturday.
The Rizal PPO identified the suspects as “Babeng,” 68, and “Pusit,” 37.
Seized from them were several sachets containing more or less 100 grams of suspected shabu. – With Christian Oineza
