'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.