Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 Source: Manila Bulletin (The Philippines) Contact: http://www.mb.com.ph/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/906 Author: Cerge M. Remonde Note: To read more about the Philippines latest anti-drug crusade visit http://www.mapinc.org/areas/philippines . A STRONGER ARM OF THE LAW WHEN policemen arrived to arrest suspected drugpusher Rigor Abala in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City recently, more than a hundred neighbors blocked their way. The police succeeded in arresting Abala only after the arrival of reinforcements from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team which effectively cordoned off the mob. This is not the first time that a suspected drugpusher was protected by his neighbors by way of a perverted form of people power in this urban poor barangay. And this is not the only urban poor barangay in the Philippines where suspected criminal elements have been protected by the neighborhood against the police. Scenes like these have taken place in many depressed barangays in Metro Manila, and in many other urban centers in the country where lawlessness seems to have become a prevalent way of life. Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Joey Lina, in a recent radio broadcast, said the barangay is in the forefront in the war against crime and drug addiction. Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Hermogenes P. Ebdane Jr. has even gone a step further by identifying the neighborhood itself as the frontline. Indeed, it is in the neighborhoods and the barangays that the foundations of the strong republic that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo envisions need to be built. And it is in this sense, that the newly elected barangay and youth officials of the land are doubly challenged to take a much greater responsibility in the task of building the strong republic. For lawlessness or any form of crime or vice can only prevail or thrive in a neighborhood or barangay, if the leaders of the community are either sleeping on their job or allowing these things to happen. I once asked a barangay captain why illegal drug trade has been rampant in his barangay. Without batting an eyelash, he told me that there was nothing he can do about it because of superior force. The sad fact is that it may have also become true that criminals have become the superior force in some of our communities. Well, there is a southern Philippine city that is already politically controlled by a criminal syndicate. It is in these circumstances where the political will of the national leadership is tested. When community leaders are already overwhelmed by criminals, it is where the full force of the national government agencies should also be applied. Lawlessness is creeping in our land largely because of drug addiction and other forms of crime. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is right in calling for a stronger arm of the law. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk