'Dirty Harry' vs RP drug dealers

'Dirty Harry' vs RP drug dealers

By Cecilia Quiambao

MANILA (JP): A flood of red ink had the Philippines' worst
drug dealers skipping out of Manila this month, the scarlet
letters apparently succeeding where other efforts had largely
failed, according to police accounts.

Known police characters awoke early this month to the pungent
smell of acrylic as teams of narcotics police armed with spray
paint swept through the capital's tough slum neighborhoods and
post blunt warnings in bold, red script on the front of certain
apartment buildings.

"Warning: A Pusher Lives Here. Stay Away," one typical sign
said. "House of a Drug Pusher," read another, accompanied by a
skull and crossbones sign.

The inspiration behind the campaign was Manila Mayor Alfredo
Lim, an uncompromising former police general known as "Dirty
Harry" who shot to fame by running off suspected prostitutes from
the city's infamous Ermita red-light district and banning a
concert by pop icon Michael Jackson, who he accused of being a
child molester.

Two weeks into the new campaign, which draws inspiration from
a famous novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne where an adulteress is made
to wear a red letter "A" on her clothes, 110 houses of suspects
have so far been tagged.

"The fight against illegal drugs during the past two weeks is
slowly being won," said Manila police chief Senior Superintendent
Avelino Razon, adding that drug users "are having a hard time
procuring (drugs) from their usual sources".

In launching the campaign, Lim told Manila police officials
that he would no longer allow drug dealers to act like
"untouchables" in their own neighborhoods. From now on, convicted
and confirmed drug dealers would be treated and "marked" for the
outlaws they are.

"The community should unite and fight back against drug
pushers," he said. "It is time to turn the tide against them."

The campaign, however, drew outraged reaction from those on
the receiving end and words of concern from the government's own
Commission on Human Rights and other civil rights groups, who
worry that marking homes of suspects could be a violation of the
people's constitutional rights to privacy, property, dignity and
due process.

Commission on Human Rights commissioner Nasser Marohomsalic
bluntly described the campaign as a "cheap political gimmick that
will go nowhere" since no crime was deterred and no arrest was
made.

Lim dismissed these concerns, but expressed willingness to
stand up to all cases of human rights violations that would be
filed against him in connection with the spray painting.

"How about the rights of the victims whose lives are destroyed
by drugs?" he asked.

The drug enforcement unit of the Manila police said 834 people
had been arrested this year for violations of the Dangerous Drugs
Act, more than double the 305 arrests in the same period last
year.

At least 20 Manila policemen are reportedly under surveillance
for alleged coddling of drug dealers, and one of them, Police
Officer Renato Jimenez, had his home sprayed with the red mark of
shame earlier this week for allegedly trying to bribe a fellow
police officer into releasing a detained drug dealer.

Drug dealing became a capital offense in 1994 under a "heinous
crime" act passed by Congress, and three Taiwanese and one
Japanese are now among more than 350 convicts on death row,
awaiting their appointment with the executioner.

However, despite the dramatic rise in arrests in Manila, there
are few indications that the draconian law has had any positive
effect.

A study by the Philippine National Police Narcotics Group,
released by Senator Ernesto Herrera, the author of the death
penalty law, paints a picture of a growing drug menace in
Philippine society, with the wrecking of homes and lives and
building up to a potential to influence national politics.

It estimates the illegal drug trade annual turnover at 251
billion pesos (US$9.5 billion), more than half the 1997 national
budget.

Eighty-one percent involves the crystalline stimulant
metamphetamine hydrochloride, known as "shabu", the fumes of
which addicts snort through pipes after heating the crystal under
a butane flame -- just like crack cocaine in the United States.
The bulk of the stimulants are believed to be shipped into the
Philippines from production bases in China and Taiwan.

The Philippines on its own produces 44 billion pesos ($1.7
billion) worth of marijuana and consumes 2.5 billion pesos ($94.8
million) worth of other banned substances, according to the
study.

The traffic does not include "millions of dollars'" worth of
high-end drugs, mostly heroin from the Golden Triangle, which are
transshipped through the Philippines into the U.S. West Coast
and Europe, the study said.

"The drug trade has become so big, syndicates can conceivably
elect the next president if they willed to," Herrera said.

The typical profile of the Filipino drug abuser has also
changed, according to separate studies.

Gone are the pot-smoking, acid-popping, long-haired teenagers
who took after the "Flower Power" generation of the United States
protest movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Today's customers,
according to the studies, are older, married and mostly moneyed
individuals, a number of who hold responsible positions in
society.

Whereas the use of marijuana, Valium, Mercodol, Mogadon,
Madrax, opium and heroin were symbols of protest, today's use of
"ice" reflects a shift to a consumerist ideology of "money,
shopping, sex and violence," according to Alejandro Melchor,
executive director of the citizens watchdog group United Pasig
Against Crime.

The Narcotics Group estimates there are 1.7 million drug users
in the Philippines, while a survey by the government's National
Youth Commission showed that 7 percent or 1.2 million of the
population aged 15 to 29 were hooked on drugs.

"The profile of drug abuse has drastically changed. The
average age of drug users is already 24 years of age as compared
to 18 years old in the 1980s," the Narcotics Group report says.

The Manila mayor's novel campaign has drawn a copycat response
from the Philippine National Police whose chief, Director General
Recaredo Sarmiento, announced that it would improve on Lim's
theme by pasting stickers on houses with the words: "This is a
Drug-Free Home".

Lim has also received encouraging support from President Fidel
Ramos, who however has pointedly avoided reference to his
unorthodox methods.

"His main concern is getting rid of the city of all forms of
criminality," said Ramos spokesman Marcelo Lagmay. "If he sees
human rights violations, I don't think he will endorse that."

Ramos' chief legal aide, Renato Cayetano, argues that Lim's
methods were well within the law.

He cited the "general welfare clause" of the Local Government
Code and a provision in the constitution which requires the
government to protect the interest, well-being and morals of the
young, as well as the state's police powers, which he said could
be exercised broadly to ensure the general welfare and interest
of the people.

Even among the law enforcers and government officials, there
are varying opinions on the spray paint's effectivity.

"Let them come out and complain of vandalism," said
Superintendent Franklin Gacutan, who oversees police units in
Manila's Binondo Chinatown district.

"Most of the pushers here are transient," said Chief Inspector
Ramon de Jesus, in charge of the slum waterfront district of
Tondo.

"They move into populated areas and establish their
operations. Eventually, they transfer to other areas."

Veteran police reporter Ramon Tulfo wryly wonders what the
fuss is all about.

"I think Lim has mellowed a lot as an unorthodox crime
buster," he said. "Perhaps age has mellowed Dirty Harry."

He recalled that when Lim was the Manila police chief,
"notorious drug pushers did not live long. They were shot dead
in alleged shoot-outs with the police or they were found dead in
areas where they operated.

"I am not saying that Lim ordered their summary execution.
It's just that the policemen who killed those drug pushers were
directly under him," he recalled.