Manila’s meth dealers back on the streets

PHILIPPINES – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs had until three weeks ago driven the trade in crystal methamphetamine underground, according to residents and drug users in some of the slum areas of the nation’s capital city, Manila. As thousands of users and dealers were shot dead by police and vigilantes in the first seven months after Duterte came to power last June, open dealing in the drug, known here by its street name shabu, largely stopped. Instead, deals were done on the quiet between people who knew each other, maybe with a text message first. But since Duterte ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to stand down from the drug war last month, after declaring the force “rotten to the core,” the drug trade has come back out of the shadows, more than half a dozen drug users and dealers in some of Manila’s toughest areas said in interviews. Beside one of the less-used railroad tracks in Manila — a grassy area scattered with human excrement only a few miles from the gleaming high-rises of the Makati business district — shabu was easily available last week, costing just a few pesos per hit. Residents said that when they traveled on the illegal trolleys that ferry people for a few pesos along the track when there are no trains in sight, a fellow passenger will often offer them a sachet of the drug. Eusebio, 52, who pushes a wood and bamboo trolley on the track for a living, said dealers sometimes walk alongside calling out: “How much are you going to buy?” “Now that the operations have been suspended, drugs have become rampant again,” he said. “Those who were hiding have resurfaced.” Manila Police Commander Olivia Sagaysay, who oversees four precincts in the city, said the war on drugs had lost momentum and morale among her officers had suffered since they were ordered to stand down. “It’s depressing,” she said. “But who are we not to follow the higherups?” Jason, a bartender who is a shabu user, said Duterte’s campaign was not successful because he targeted the wrong people. If authorities had gone after the “cookers,” the people manufacturing the drugs, instead of users and small dealers, people like him would be unable to buy and would move on. As it is, Jason said, shabu is always in plentiful supply, adding he was addicted and the drug eliminated any fear he may have had of being shot by police or vigilantes. (japantimes)