Drug lords earn P700B a year; 6.7M Filipinos are users - DDB

Illegal drug traders in the Philippines earn a staggering P700 billion a year and 6.7 million Filipinos are drug users, Undersecretary Romeo Vera Cruz of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) told lawmakers on Tuesday. Vera Cruz made the disclosure at a hearing of the House of Representatives dangerous drugs committee, which was investigating the so-called shabu tiangge (flea market) in Pasig City raided by the police last February 10.

“That’s (more than) half of our national budget," said Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, chair of the House of Representatives committee on oversight, when told of the P700-billion income of illegal drug traders. The proposed budget for 2007 has been pegged at P1.136 trillion. Vera Cruz also noted that the 6.7 million drug users as of 2005 were fewer than the estimated 9.3 million users in 2001. The Philippines has a population of 85 million. The DDB board member attributed the decline in the number of users to the higher street prices of illegal drugs, noting that shabu now goes for P5,000 per gram, up from P2,000 per gram in 2000. “If this illegal drug trade will further flourish, this will represent what we have seen in the movies as Clear and Present Danger," Suarez said, referring to the film based on the novel on the Colombian drug cartel by bestselling author Tom Clancy. Shabu remains the “most frequently abused drug," followed by marijuana, rugby, cough syrup, and the designer drug ecstasy. Suarez also couldn’t help but compare drug lords’ massive earnings to to the limited resources of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which was proposed to get a measly P140 million budget next year. “Imagine, you are fighting with at least a P350 billion industry (going by the P2,000 per gram benchmark). We have to have a bigger budget for PDEA. I will move the budget of PDEA not be approved. It doesn’t even have enough personnel," he said. By Suarez’s estimate, the illegal drug trade is also the biggest industry in the country, much more lucrative than even the most profitable companies involved in the manufacture of alcohol or tobacco. “Maybe 90 percent of heinous crimes are even drug-related. And this (drug industry) is not even taxable. This is not VAT-able. This is the biggest industry so far, bigger than alcohol and tobacco industries," he said. Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan, who heads the dangerous drugs committee, said the drug problem has now become a “global epidemic" that needs to be addressed at the soonest time possible. -GMANews.TV