Cut recrimination

Not only is coordination sorely lacking among agencies in President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature war on drugs but there also seems to be an absence of the exchange of notes with their foreign counterparts.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña in so many words said the shabu shipment worth an estimated P6.8 billion that slipped past agencies involved in the campaign against narcotics, including the Bureau of Customs (BoC), was the result of poor sharing of information.

“Increasing our effectiveness in carrying out our mandate of prevention of smuggling of any commodity is the timely receipt of intelligence information from the lead agencies, primarily tasked to eliminate illegal drugs in the country and the close coordination with proper authorities between agencies,” he said.

On the P4.3 billion worth of shabu intercepted at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) terminal, Lapeña said the first time that he was informed about it was on 4 August when he immediately ordered the cargo container to be put on hold.

He found out that the smuggled drugs arrived in MICP on 28 June and was abandoned by the consignee who is not accredited by the BoC.

After the MICP bust, four other magnetic lifters were discovered in Cavite which Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents said could have contained P6.8 billion worth of shabu. Lapeña said he ordered the backtracking of the shipment’s delivery.

Although the agents found nothing, they believed that illicit drugs had been hidden in the lifters at some point as sniffer dogs detected the presence of drugs.

The PDEA said its investigations indicated drug syndicates from Taiwan were behind the shipment and used Malaysia as a transshipment point.

The PDEA claim was disputed by Taiwan as its Ministry of Finance (MoF) said the shipment did not originate from their country.

Taiwan’s MoF said its investigation found the shipment to have originated in Malaysia.

Taiwan also proved to be quicker in its “backtracking” as it found that the shabu shipment was exported from Vietnam and transited through the port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan on 6 July before arriving in the Philippines.

The MoF said even if the shipments were not exported from Taiwan, its representative office in the Philippines will contact the PDEA to provide assistance in cracking the drug ring which is suspected to be a Taiwanese drug syndicate based in the Golden Triangle where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet and which is said to be a main route for illegal drugs in the region.

Taiwan said its customs will strengthen cooperation with other government agencies to step up anti-drug efforts and promote the exchange of anti-drug intelligence and information with law enforcement authorities of other countries.

Malacañang agreed, saying coordination is necessary “to track the people behind the illegal shipment of multibillion-peso worth of illegal drugs in the country.”

President Rodrigo Duterte in his State of the Nation Address last month said the anti-narcotics drive will remain “relentless and chilling.”

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque vowed a coordinated response against big-time drug suppliers who are “becoming bolder with a dwindled local supply.”

“We view the latest reported foreign drug shipment as a sign that big-time drug manufacturers and smugglers are becoming bolder with a dwindled local supply, as they feel pressure from the government’s campaign against illegal drugs,” Roque said.

The administration of Noynoy failed in so many aspects as a result of brave words or “sound bytes” that do not translate into action.

Rody proved, when he assumed office, that political will speaks louder than words yet some agencies appear backsliding to the ways of the past when war of words and buck-passing dominate rather than committed work.

The only solution is for the agency heads to talk to each other.

The recent narcotics haul, coming after the extensive probe last year on the P6.4 billion smuggled shabu from China proved that the same syndicates remained entrenched in the agencies involved in the war on drugs.

The irony is that many in these agencies know who the targets are yet their officials choose to squabble on who to pin the blame on whenever they goof up.