Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 Source: Sunstar Manila (Philippines) Contact: 2002, Sunstar Website: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2304 Author: Joshua Dancel GLO TO NAME RP'S TOP DRUG SYNDICATES TODAY THE President will name the country's top drug syndicates during her Monday's State of the Nation Address (Sona) and start her all out war against drug syndicates. "In my Sona, I will identify these syndicates which I consider a threat to national security," the Chief Executive said in Filipino Saturday. President Macapagal-Arroyo's announcement was apparently part of her administration's new campaigns for next year, which are peace and order and corruption. She admitted that drug syndicates indeed corrupt public officials all over the country paying them off with drug money "to blind them" from illegal activities. "The illegal drug industry-which covers the drug manufacturing, drug trafficking, and the corruption of public officials-is one of the biggest problem of our country," the President said. More than anything, she said the drug menace has been responsible for the slow destruction of the society's most basic unit, the family. "There are many families in the country that have been destroyed because one member-usually a child-was a victim of drugs. The President's solution to the drug problem, the full implementation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, and the creation of the new and revitalized Dangerous Drugs Board, which Senator Vicente Sotto III will oversee. Sotto, the President said, has accepted the job she offered, but maintained that he would be "working closely with the Administration without resigning from the Senate." Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye reiterated that the drug problem is part of the campaign to maintain peace and order in the country, which is twined with her anti-terrorism thrust. "The President will ask Congress to pass the anti-terrorism bill when she speaks before the country on Monday," he said. Just the other day, the Philippine National Police was able to close down a major illegal drug laboratory in a posh village in Quezon City. About 104 kilos of shabu were captured together with other raw materials and paraphernalia for drug production. Six Chinese nationals and three Filipinos were also arrested. The huge drug bust, which the President lauded, coincided with the Chief Executive's creation of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), headed by a former official under the Estrada Administration. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk