[OPINION] Drugs and scalawags: What to do?
I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest poetic licenses for police officers, albeit closet poets in the Philippine National Police (PNP) may exist.
Since gun licenses were already hard to come by years ago, one would think that the current slacking down of gun laws for our law enforcement dudes and dudettes may come as a breath of fresh gunpowder.
A new memorandum by PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil recently grabbed the headlines, saying that uniformed officers are no longer required to undergo drug testing when getting a firearm license. This includes neuropsychiatric evaluations.
If I were a cop, I would probably welcome this development with wide-open calfskin leather holsters. I mean, that’s one burden off my already underpaid shoulders.
Based on figures by the Firearms and Explosive Unit, a law enforcement administration member-slash-government employee enjoys a 50% discount in gun license procurement (from a regular rate of P1,000 for a maximum of two Type-1 FAs), with an additional 20% discount if you’re an arthritis-wracked senior citizen.
P500 is still P500, though, with a highly volatile inflation rate not making things any easier.
To make things worse, in one of my interviews in the past, I did come across a military officer who purchased her own firearms all because government-issued handguns were not up to snuff compared to modern ones. If such is the case with law enforcement officers in the PNP, then Houston, we have a problem.
The real jawbreaker is the undeniable fact that many of our police officers have been charged with participating in illegal drugs cases. This fact is homegrown telenovela script.
In October of last year, the Philippine News Agency reported that criminal raps had been filed against 50 cops in the P6.7-bilion shabu haul, including 12 commissioned officers.
Earlier last year, sometime July, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sacked 18 high-ranking police officials in a “cleansing program” aimed at weeding out officers with ties to illegal drugs.
These 18 officials were part of 935 police officers who tendered their resignations due to such nefarious links, three of whom reportedly were brigadier generals while the rest were colonels in the PNP.
The year 2024 kicked off with 170 police officers charged with drug-related offenses. Apparently, sugar high from donuts during stakeouts does not cut it any more than it used to.
Without even mentioning cops charged with indiscriminate firing nearly every year, yes, Houston, we do have a serious problem.
However, the PNP top brass explains that there is an ongoing annual mandatory drug testing and neuropsychiatric evaluation in the PNP. This already covers the required testing during the procurement of gun licenses.
But are these annual mandatory tests anywhere near being effective in pinpointing drug users and scalawags in the PNP? Apparently not. The Marcos Jr. administration has, by the start of the year, already dismissed 108 police scalawags because of their involvement in illegal drugs.
The PNP is only about 232,000-strong. If drug links go unchecked, the ranks of our security forces will thin out, leaving the country virtually in the hands of cartels.
Think about it: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported in June 2024 that “The number of people who use drugs has risen to 292 million in 2022, a 20 per cent increase over 10 years. Cannabis remains the most widely used drug worldwide (228 million users), followed by opioids (60 million users), amphetamines (30 million users), cocaine (23 million users), and ecstasy (20 million users).”
How many of these users come from government agencies like law enforcement?
I believe the people have all the reason to fear the elimination of the required drug tests and psychiatric evaluations for officers on their way to procure gun licenses. Regardless of the annual mandatory tests for PNP officers, they should not be exempted from the requirements for gun licenses.
The figures and arrests of police officers and officials with links to illegal drugs do not speak kindly of our law enforcement agencies. The good ones will suffer with the bad.
This is why the PNP top brass will do well to impose these tests, if for no other reason than to secure the integrity of our law enforcement agencies.
At the moment, things already look grim.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of PhilSTAR L!fe, its parent company and affiliates, or its staff.