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).