Bigger fish

lucrative illegal trades. While citizens cheered the arrest of street-level pushers and the surrender of hundreds of thousands of drug users, one question that kept coming up was: What about bigtime traders of illegal drugs? What about alleged drug traders who hold positions in government? Can we expect government operatives to go after them as intensely as they have pursued pushers and runners?

Malacañang’s order is clear. One of the functions of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs, which Executive Order 15 created last March, is “to cleanse the bureaucracy of unscrupulous personnel involved in illegal drug activities.”

This does not mean that any anti-drug operation by the PNP and PDEA should be considered beyond scrutiny, just because they happen to be against high-profile personalities— and public officials, no less. Government agencies should still be examined for what Human Rights Watch has described as “a pattern of unlawful police conduct” in anti-drug operations. Since March, the organization, among others, has appealed to the United Nations to create “an independent, international investigation into the killings” to ensure that all these institutions are kept accountable.

Leaders need not wait for such an investigation to begin. A greater emphasis on (and more results against) alleged drug players in public office shows that the campaign can be calibrated, as required. A greater emphasis on accountability— on the willingness of the police and PDEA to publicly examine their conduct and methods— will rally the additional support this campaign needs. — Sunnex