‘… Is the current trend of big-time trafficking in drugs related to the forthcoming political exercise in May?’
POLITICIANS need money every day — that is the essence of patronage politics that we have in the Philippines. Constituents, ward leaders and other groups look up to politicians in power to take care of their basic needs, what more of emergency expenses that crop up every now and then.
However rich a politician is, even if he/she is as wealthy as boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, the candidate sets a limit on expenses, water from the faucet can only flow so much. The latest episode in Sen. Ping Lacson’s political career concerns money — according to him, he could not produce the P800,000 needed by Davao del Norte candidates of Reporma, so he was dropped by Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez in favor of Vice President Leni Robredo. This led to Lacson’s decision to leave Reporma and run instead as independent presidential candidate.
Our expensive elections have put the candidates in a bind: where to scrape the funds to pursue their financially demanding candidacies. Donations from businessmen come only when your name is prominent in surveys, and money for the poll takers and poll respondents is also needed to be tops in surveys. It is a classic chicken-and-egg situation.
For those holding political power and influence, gambling and illegal drugs may provide sources for easy money, now that they, too, are in need for such. The temptation is just too hard to resist.
This leads us into thinking: Is the current trend of big-time trafficking in drugs related to the forthcoming political exercise in May?
Consider the following incidents last week:
— Marlou Solas Sidillo, 29; Resty Baitiong Macalansag, 38, and Jasmin de Guzman Tayao, 31, were reportedly caught with 100 grams of shabu valued at P680,000 in a sting in Caloocan before dawn Saturday.
— In Quezon City, two bricks of marijuana with a street value of P240,000 were recovered in Quezon City on Friday afternoon. The bricks were turned over by employees of the J&T Express branch in Barangay Greater Fairview at around 5 p.m., according to police Drug Enforcement Group director Brig. Gen. Randy Peralta.
— The biggest illegal drugs haul in Philippine history according to NBI Acting Director Eric Distor — several vans containing almost 1,600 plastic tea bags of crystal meth or shabu worth P11 billion — was seized by the NBI Task Force against Illegal Drugs in Infanta, Quezon province last March 15.
We hope that the law enforcement agencies will thoroughly study the symbiotic and directly proportional relationship between the illegal drugs trade and the elections — and act as their mandate dictates.
