14 mayors included in drug watch list - DDB

At least 14 mayors in the Philippines are included in a government watch list of persons suspected to be involved in drug-related activities, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) revealed Friday. DDB Chairman Vicente Sotto III refused to name the 14 mayors but said that seven of them are from Luzon, five from Mindanao, and two from the Visayas. There are a total of 120 city mayorS and 1,514 municipal mayors in the country.

Sotto, however, was quick to point out that these mayors are only a small portion of the unspecified total number of people listed in the government watch list. “The watch list also includes personalities who are not officials but are supposedly involved in drug activities," Sotto told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. He said they formulated the list based on intelligence information gathered by both the government and concerned citizens. Sotto said they have already submitted the list to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. “Aside from law enforcement agencies, the President gave a directive to agencies concerned with unexplained wealth and money laundering to investigate these people," he said. Among these agencies are the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Anti-Money Laundering Council, he said. Last July, the Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction of a former town mayor in Quezon province and his aide who were caught by law enforcers as they were transporting 503 kilograms of shabu to Manila in 2001. Ronnie Mitra, former mayor of Panukulan town in Quezon, and Javier Morilla were meted life imprisonment in a sentence originally handed down in 2007 by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. Records of the said case showed that Mitra and Morilla were arrested on Oct. 13, 2001 by a joint team of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at a checkpoint in Barangay Kiloloran in Real, Quezon as they were transporting the contraband shipment to Manila using a municipal ambulance and a van. The municipal ambulance yielded 10 sacks of shabu, each sack containing 500 packs of the illegal substance. The van driven by Mitra yielded six sacks. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had said the case was proof that narco-politics existed in the Philippines. It warned the public to report politicians running in the 2010 elections using funds from drug lords. RP: Haven for drug traffickers Last February, the US State Department reported that illegal drugs remain a significant problem in the Philippines. [See: US govt: illegal drugs remain a significant problem in RP] In its 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), the US State Department said illegal drug usage is the fourth most pressing law enforcement problem in the Philippines. The DDB had earlier reported that there were an estimated 6.7 million illegal drug users in the country, but Sotto said the estimate was based on a “flawed" methodology, and the true figure was likely to be much larger. The DDB said it intends to conduct a more thorough survey in 2009. Meanwhile, the INCSR said the Philippines’ unpatrolled and sparsely inhabited coastline across more than 7,000 islands makes it an “attractive narcotics source and transshipment country for traffickers, including terrorist and insurgent organizations." The INCSR report said based on drug seizures in 2008, the Philippines continued to be a producer and exporter of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) and marijuana. It said the Philippines’ poorest regions, such as those in Mindanao, have the highest percentage of shabu abusers. The 2008 United Nations (UN) World Drug Report also said that the Philippines has the world’s highest estimated annual shabu prevalence rate at six percent. The UN report said shabu is clandestinely manufactured in the Philippines, with precursor chemicals coming illegally from China, India, and Thailand. It said the shabu manufactured in the country are exported to Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and in relatively small quantities to the US (including Guam and Saipan). - GMANews.TV