It seemed that we have no viable and lasting solution to our drug problem; and the sad reality is that there is so much killing and bickering among our leaders on how to combat our drug menace. Worse, even our top leadership has no apparent and logical plan to succeed in this endeavor, We do not have the luxury of time by our indecision and inaction. Let us consider these hard realities that confront us now:
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Congested jail in the Philippines
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SERIOUS DRUG
MENACE:
There are 3 million current drug users in the
Philippines or 3% of the total population of 100.98 million, results of the
Dangerous Drugs Board survey.
More than 8,629 or 20.5 percent of the 42,065
barangays nationwide have drug related cases.
EXTRA-JUDICIAL
KILLINGS:
There have been killings not only by the police but
by some groups, like vigilantes or by drug lords themselves, in an effort to
cut their ties with their pushers and assets, and some 3,000 (still rising
day-by-day) have already been killed, and if we still give the government
another six months, more will be killed. We cannot kill all the drug users and
peddlers to solve our problem on illegal drugs! As long there’s demand for illegal drugs, the drug menace will be here with
us…
Duterte himself is helpless and do not know how to
end his “war on drugs”. In his speech before troops of the 9th
Infantry Division at Camp Elias Angeles in Camarines Sur, September 21,
2016, Duterte justified killing of users and pushers because, according to
him, “the technicality of the law makes hard for me to deal with the drug
problem.”
(IMAGINE A
PRESIDENT LEADING US TO WAR WITHOUT KNOWING HOW TO END THE WAR?!!?)
According to the PNP, from July 1 to September 5,
2016, some 1,027 suspects were killed during police operations. As of Monday,
September 19, data from the PNP shows that 17,759 suspected drug personalities
have been arrested under Oplan Double Barrel and more than 800,000 “surrendered
voluntarily to the police. The death toll constitutes a more than fifteen-fold
jump over the 68 police killings recorded between January 1 to June 15, a
period of more than five months.
JAIL
CONGESTION AND COST OF INMATE MAINTENANCE:
Imagine
five prisoners crammed into one square meter of jail space.
Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto cited the
congestion rate in the four most tightly-packed jails in the country in
prodding government to initiate reforms in the country's penal system which,
with 135,000 inmates, are almost at four times their capacity. Recto said it is
no longer accurate to call our prisons "parang sardinas sa sikip."
The correct term, he said, is "daig pa ang siniksik na longganisa."
In a resolution, Recto urged the Senate to probe
"the worsening conditions" in the country's prisons which will cost
taxpayers P10.1 billion to maintain this year.
Another compelling reason why prisons must be
reformed is their expected intake of thousands of new inmates, Recto said.
With the administration's war on crime and illegal
drugs netting thousands, many of whom may be jail-bound, "there's a need
to find space for them because our standing-room-only prisons are filled to the
rafters," Recto said.
Two government agencies run the "prison republic"
- the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), which is under the
Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Bureau of Corrections
(BuCor), which is attached to the Department of Justice.
Detainees awaiting trial and those who have been
sentenced by the courts to serve time for three years and below are committed
to BJMP. It had 93,961 detainees under its care in September last year. Those
who have been sentenced to more than three years and one day in prison are sent
to eight BuCor facilities. More than half, or 23,749 of BuCor's 2016 prisoner
population of 41,207 are in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
BJMP jails are 397 percent over capacity, Recto
said. "Cells built for 18,881 prisoners now house 93,961." Prison
manuals call for an ideal cell space of 4.7 square meters per detainee but
based on official BJMP reports, the national average is 1 square meter per BJMP
detainee. Citing BJMP data, Recto said the top four most congested BJMP jails -
in Malolos City, Bulacan; San Pedro, Laguna; General Trias, Cavite; and the
female dormitory of Quezon City Jail - have a congestion rate of 2,000 percent.
575 women prisoners in the Quezon City jail are packed into 129 square meters
of cell space built for 27, according to the same report Recto cited. Those
ranked 4 to 20 in the list of the most congested BJMP jails have congestion
rates of 1,425 percent to 1,765 percent, the senator said.
Over at the BuCor, New Bilibid Prisons reported a
congestion rate of 181 percent with 23,749 prisoners staying in the old
facility designed to house 8,460. The Davao Penal Colony, with 6,274 prisoners,
has a congestion rate of 265 percent while the Leyte Regional Prison, home to
1,919, said it is 304 percent over capacity. Overall, BuCor said its overcapacity
rate this year is 158 percent.
In the resolution he filed, Recto warned that "deteriorating living conditions in
jails and prisons expose detainees and inmates to hazards like the onset of
infectious disease epidemic, higher suicide rates, frequent inter-prisoner
violence. "Overcrowding and other problems in the Philippine
corrections system could affect the security of the government jail and prison
custodians, provide opportunities for acts of corruption, and cause the
violation of the normative standards of jail and prison management," he
added.
"Instead of
rehabilitating prisoners, harsh jail conditions could make them hardened
criminals, with jails serving as masteral schools for a career in crime,"
Recto stressed.
Jail and prison congestion,
he said, can be eased by reforming the justice system "so that there will
be fast trials, minimum court hearing postponements."
"Yung iba, sampung taon na sa kulungan sa bagal
ng usad ng kaso dahil kulang ang judges o tambak ang trabaho nila. Di rin sapat
ang PAO lawyers. Pati prosecutors kulang din."
JUDICIAL
COST FROM ARRAIGNMENT TO SENTENCING:
From 2002 to 2014, 106,092 drug
cases were filed, but only 5,265 or 5 percent resulted in conviction. Around
19,585 or 18.46 percent were settled. A total of 9,051 or 8 percent led to
acquittal and 5,269 or 5 percent to dismissal. The usual reason for the
dismissal or acquittal was the failure of the arresting officer to comply with
the requirements of R.A. 9165.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Phil. has the
highest number of pre-trial detainees in Southeast Asia. Carlos Conde, HRW
researcher in the Philippines wrote: “Corrupt
and incompetent investigators and prosecutors, a judicial and court system
clogged with too many cases, and too few judges to try them. These
institutional pathologies result in unjust and prolonged detention.”
According to the Institute for Criminal Policy
Research, pre-trial detainees make up 64% of the country’s population and 50%
of detainees are charged with drug-related cases, a non-bailable offense, and
if bailable, the amount of bail is unconscionable amounting to denial of the
right. Every year, there is an average
increase of prisoners between three and 10%.
With
President Duterte’s war on drugs and other criminalities, jail population is
expected to increase, and there is a need to increase food allowance and
expansion of jail areas. Not
to mention the cost of judicial prosecution and punishment of detained
prisoners who can’t afford a highly unconscionable bail, starting from their
arraignment, hearing on the merits of their cases up to sentencing. The
government provides lawyers to the poor litigants, normally the PAO. The bottom line is drug cases which unduly
clogged court dockets cost the government during their detention (P10-B a yr);
and judicial cost (estimated to be P200,000.00 per accused-detainee, which
includes salaries of PAO lawyers, prosecutors, judges; from arraignment to
sentencing.
Here is the sad reality: 800,000 users and addicts
have surrendered as of September, 2016, and there are only 15 rehabilitation
centers administered by the DOH, Only
3,000 addicts are being rehabilitated, and with the construction of the 10,000
bed capacity in Nueva Ecija, still we are
far away from completely rehabilitating drug addicts..
IS HARSHER ENORCEMENT OF DRUG LAWS SOLUTION
TO A GROWING DRUG MENACE?
There
is no evidence that tough enforcement of the drug laws on personal possession
leads to lower levels of drug use, and examining international drug laws has
put an end to 40 years of almost unbroken political rhetoric that only harsher
penalties can tackle the problem caused by the likes of heroin, cocaine or
cannabis.
Ann Fordham, Executive Director
of the International Drug Policy Consortium, in her column adopted by the
Philippine Daily Inquirer has this to say:
HARSH
SOLUTIONS TO DRUG PROBLEM A TOTAL FAILURE
Last
week, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a candidate in the upcoming
presidential election, pledged to declare drug-related problems as a national
security threat and to allocate two divisions of the Philippine Army and 3,000
policemen to fight it. It is highly questionable whether this is an effective
response. Despite already significant investment of state resources in law
enforcement for police to conduct raids, arrests and seizures to tackle drugs,
a violent criminal market continues to grow in the Philippines.
It seems that harsh penalties
are not a deterrent, as despite having some of the harshest penalties for drug
offenses in Asia, more and more people are arrested for drug use and possession
every year in the Philippines. These tough sanctions are also unjustly
disproportionate. Possession of drugs alone can lead to a sentence of life
imprisonment, while the maximum sentence for homicide is 17 years imprisonment.
These measures have led to the highest prison overcrowding rates (over 700
percent in some regions) in Southeast Asia. Over half of those in prison are
held for drug-related crimes, mostly low-level offenses. It is often those who
are already poor and vulnerable that suffer most from these punitive policies.
For example, while women are a minority in the prison population, one out of
every two women is incarcerated because of a drug-related crime.
The
unbalanced investment in heavily punitive measures has diverted attention and
resources away from ensuring access to evidence-based drug treatment and harm
reduction services, such as the provision of needle and syringe programs to
prevent the spread of HIV among people who inject drugs. This lack of
investment in health services means that those who are looking for help with
problems relating to their drug use cannot get it. The Philippines now has a
health crisis on its hands, with the world’s second highest rate of HIV
prevalence among people who inject drugs.
In
other parts of the world, governments are turning away from the use of harsh
punishment to manage drug-related problems. After a century of prohibitionist
drug policies, with vast resources poured into law and military enforcement and
increasingly severe punishments imposed for drug use and supply, the world is
very far from achieving the “drug-free world” envisaged by the last UN General
Assembly Special Session (Ungass) on the world drug problem in 1998. The
reality is that even in countries that have meted out the most excessive
brutality in an attempt to eliminate drugs—from Thailand’s 2003 “war on drugs”
(which resulted in 2,800 people dead from extrajudicial killings in the first
three months) to Mexico’s militarization of its drug war in 2006 (which
provoked outbreaks of violence with drug cartels leading to over 164,000
homicide victims between 2007 and 2014)—no claim of success in even suppressing
drug markets, least of all eliminating them, can be made. Year after year, the
UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports expanding and diversifying drug markets,
especially for methamphetamine in Southeast and East Asia.
It is
the devastating consequences of prohibitionist and punitive drug policies that
motivated the heads of state of Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia to call for the
first Ungass on the world drug problem in almost two decades, which started in
New York April 19 and will end today. The Ungass was envisaged as a critical
juncture to evaluate the effectiveness of existing drug policies and to debate
alternative strategies that could achieve better outcomes for the health and
welfare of humankind—the objective of the international drug treaties. In the
lead-up to the Ungass, many governments including the United States, Uruguay
and Colombia, called for a shift in drug policies from a focus on law
enforcement toward public health. Notably last year, Thailand’s minister of
justice, Gen. Paiboon Khumchaya, publicly acknowledged the goal of eradicating
drugs as counterproductive, leading only to systemic police corruption, and
prisons overcrowded with low-level drug offenders from impoverished
backgrounds.
With
the Ungass, the Philippines was similarly presented with an opportunity to
revisit and revise its drug policy and move away from punitive drug laws
that are ineffective in addressing drug problems and are detrimental to public
health. It should review its laws criminalizing people who use drugs and
disproportionately punishing low-level offenders, and create new policies that
allow evidence-based harm reduction services such as needle-and-syringe
exchange programs.
In
this context, it is disconcerting that Duterte is proposing to divert
resources toward militarizing the drug enforcement response. Such action
risks escalating violence, at great cost to human life and the security of
communities, with virtually no chance of success in even suppressing drug
markets. This is the lesson learned by governments around the world that have
attempted to fight drug problems with violence and punishment. Many of them
are now calling for drug policies based on health and human rights. For the
Philippines to go against this trend is to perpetuate the devastating
consequences of unjust and ineffective drug policies, and the waste of already
scarce resources, without improving outcomes for the health and security of
communities.
The
Philippines has the highest abuse rate for methamphetamine hydrochloride or
shabu in East Asia, according to the latest United Nations World Drug Report.
It also disclosed that 2.1 percent of Filipinos aged 16 to 64 were using shabu,
and “domestic consumption of shabu and marijuana continued to be the main drug
threats in the Philippines.
A LOOK ON MEXICO’S
HARSHER DRUG LAWS:
This
underdevelopment becomes both cause and effect of Mexico’s culture of impunity.
Now more than ever Mexico must rewrite its criminal code or risk becoming a
narco-state, where the only authorities
will be the drug cartels.
The
violence is already placing substantial strains upon Mexico’s understaffed and
overwhelmed legal system. Since President Calderon began his nationwide
crackdown on drug cartels in December 2006, over 23000 people have died,
including 3,500 deaths so far this year- and it’s only getting worse.
Additionally, over 50,000 suspects have been detained. As the government continues
its battle against drug cartels, weapon smugglers, corruption, and other social
ills, thousands more will be arrested, and thousands more will perish.
MEXICO NO PLEA
BARGAINING:
As
a result, the balancing act that every society confronts-between individual
rights and societal security-has been completely perverted in Mexico. All too
often Mexico’s criminal justice system facilitates torture and police abuse
from those too helpless too poor, while failing to actually combat crime. More
than any drug cartel or criminal organization, Mexico’s teetering criminal
justice has been the biggest contributor to its absolute rate of impunity. To illustrate, while 95% of all convictions
in the United States end in plea bargains, in Mexico this procedure is largely
unavailable. The inefficiency of not allowing plea bargains has been a major
factor behind astronomical levels of impunity because there simply are not
enough courtrooms or prosecutors to try every criminal.
PHILIPPINES ADOPTS
A HARSHER DRUG LAWS THAN OTHER COUNTRIES:
As
penalty under Republic Act 9165, the unauthorized SALE of shabu, regardless of its quantity and purity, carries with
it the penalty of life imprisonment to death and a fine ranging from
P500,000.00 to P10,000,000.00, and a person charged for selling illegal drugs
is prohibited from posting bail.
For POSSESSION
of shabu less than five grams, that person shall be sentenced to 12 years
and eight months, as minimum, to 17 years and eight months, as maximum, and a
fine of P300,000.00. He is allowed to post bail in the amount of P200,000.00.
In
both cases, a person charged either for SELLING or POSSESSION who cannot post
bail remains in jail pending the hearing of his case.
IS
THERE A WAY OUT IN OUR WAR AGAINST ILLEGAL DRUGS?
After 25 years of its fight against illegal drugs,
Mexico has yet to claim victory; also with the United States since the time Pres.
Nixon has declared war against the drug trade, President Duterte is just
starting his crusade yet bodies continue to pile up in the graves, and into our
over-crowded jails. And with no viable solution in sight, Pres. Duterte resorts
to killing… and more killing, and indiscriminate arrests crowding our jails.
Our president should learn from the mistakes of Mexico and stop killing our
addicts. They should be rehabilitated and treated humanely. As stated above,
and had already been proven, harsh drug laws and treatment of addicts does not
solve the problem.
The
first thing to do is to review cases of
those in jail and charged of drug offenses who cannot afford bail,
including those accused of non-bailable offense (selling) with the end in view
of RELEASING THESE PRISONERS through a process called PLEA BARGAINING.
BUT FIRST: WE HAVE TO AMEND THE LAW!
Plea bargaining is the remedy to decongest our
worsening jail conditions in order to realign the cost of jail maintenance to
the cost of rehabilitating drug dependents.
Plea bargaining is not new in our criminal justice system.
In fact, this is allowed under Sec. 1 of Rule 118 of the Revised Rules on
Criminal Procedure, where an accused charged of an offense is allowed to plead
guilty to a lesser offense in exchange for a lighter penalty.
But
the sad reality is RA 1965 prohibits plea bargaining in all cases charged under
the law. This means that a person caught in possession of prohibited drugs
(such as shabu) say .01 grams (or a pinch of salt) shall, if convicted, suffer
imprisonment of 12 years and 8 months as minimum to 17 years and 8 months as
maximum, whereas a person guilty of homicide (or killing somebody) shall suffer
imprisonment of 10 years as minimum to 14 years as maximum! WHERE IS JUSTICE? Instead of treating the victim
(the accused-addict) with compassion, the law treats him worse than a killer:
instead of confinement in a rehabilitation, he is confined in a jail where only
a beast survives.
What
is revolting is this fact: If those accused of other heinous crimes such as
murder, some acts of rape and other crimes where the maximum imposable penalty
is either life imprisonment, or death are allowed into plea bargaining under
Sec. 1, Rule 118 of the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure, those charged or
accused of our present drug law are not allowed into plea bargaining. WHICH IS MORE DEPLORABLE, KILLING SOMEONE OR BEING
A DRUG ADDICT CAUGHT IN POSSESSION OF A DRUG?
Under the old drug law (RA 6425 of 1972) section
20-A allowed plea bargaining: “Any person charged under any provisions of this
Act where the imposable penalty is reclusion perpetua to death shall not be
allowed to avail of the provision on plea bargaining.” This means that those
accused of offenses where the penalty is not life imprisonment to death are
allowed to avail of the process.
HAS THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW BROUGHT THE DESIRED RESULT?
NO.
AS A MATTER OF FACT, IT MADE THE SITUATION WORSE: OVERCROWDED AND INTOLERABLE
JAIL CONDITIONS, COURT DOCKET CONGESTIONS, DEMEANING SOCIAL AND HEALTH
CONDITIONS OF DRUG ADDICTS WHO ARE IN JAIL.
LET
US IMMEDIATELY AMEND RA 9165 AND ALLOW
PLEA BARGAINING; AND TO ADDRESS OUR CONCERNS OF “ABUSE IN THE PROCESS”,
CONGRESS MUST FIRST PASS A LAW FOR THE CREATION OF A SUPER-BODY CONSISTING OF LEGISLATIVE,
JUDICIAL AND EXECUTIVE OFFICIALS, TO RECOMMEND TO CONGRESS PROPOSED LEGISLATION
ON EFECTIVE PLEA BARGAINING PROCESS. THIS LAW, HOWEVER, MUST BE APPLIED TO
THOSE ALREADY IN JAIL, TO DECONGEST OUR OVERCROWED JAILS AND EASE OUR COURT
DOCKETS, AND THE MONEY TO BE SAVED TO MAINTAIN THE PRISONERS SHALL INSTEAD BE
CHANNELED FOR THEIR REHABILITATION. AS A PRACTICING LAWYER HADLING DRUG CASES,
THE AVERAGE TIME FOR A CASE TO BE DECIDED IS THREE YEARS. THIS WAS BEFORE. BUT
WITH MORE AND MORE CASES REACHING OUR COURTS, IT WOULD TAKE AS MUCH AS FIVE
YEARS BEFORE A CASE IS DECIDED!
WHAT
IS REVOLTING THOUGH IS MOST OF THESE CASES ARE POSSESSION OR SELLING OF LESS
THAN A GRAM OF SHABU; SOME MERE POSSESSION, AND IF AN ACCUSED IS ACQUITTED, HE
HAD LOST THE BETTER PART OF HIS LIFE IN JAIL.
STATISTICS
SHOW THAT ONLY 3,000 DRUG DEPENDENTS ARE UNDERGOING REHABILITATION, AND THERE
ARE ONLY 10 REHABILITATION CENTERS ADMINISTERED BY THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
ANO
ANG GAGAWIN NATIN SA MGA HIGIT 800,000 DRUG DEPENDENTS WHO ALREADY SURRENDERED
TO THE GOVERNMENT AND WANT TO CHANGE THEIR LIVES? IT SEEMED THAT THE REMEDY OF THE GOVERNMENT
IS TO KILL, KILL AND KILL!
IT
NEEDS THE INTERACTION AND COOPERATION OF THE THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT TO
ADDDRESS THIS CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER BEFORE IT DESTROYS THE VERY FABRIC OF
OUR SOCIETY!
LET
US ENCOURAGE OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS TO PASS THIS MESSAGE TO THOSE IN
GOVERNMENT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE… NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!!!
Napoleon B. Arenas,
Jr, Dagupan City; Your
comment to pansanera@yahoo.com
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