Drug lords may run RP poll: Senator

Drug lords may run RP poll: Senator

MANILA (AFP): The narcotics trade in the Philippines is now a 251 billion-peso (US$9.5 billion) a year business, and drug lords wield so much influence they could conceivably elect the next president, a senator said yesterday.

The illegal drugs turnover is worth more than half the national budget. But police forces seized less than two billion pesos' worth in 1996, or "less than one percent of the volume of drugs that hit our streets each year," Senator Ernesto Herrera said.

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

Filipino legislators say candidates in the May 1998 presidential election would need a campaign war chest of between 1.5 and three billion pesos ($56.9 million to $113.7 million).