Senator Panfilo Lacson 黑料社 FILE PHOTO
With the changing of the guard in President Duterte鈥檚 war on drugs, the senators are considering realigning the P900-million budget the Philippine National Police is asking for the campaign for 2018.
鈥淭here will definitely be a realignment of the P900 million,鈥� said Sen. Panfilo Lacson, vice chair of the committee on finance and sponsor of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency鈥檚 (PDEA) budget in a text message on Thursday.
Bigger budget for PDEA
Lacson also said Mr.聽 Duterte鈥檚 directive appointing the PDEA as the sole agency that would carry out his campaign against illegal drugs would ensure the swift adoption on the floor and on the conference committee of his amendment doubling the agency鈥檚 budget to give it more teeth.
He said the PDEA budget was increased from P1.2 billion to P2.59 billion in the Senate version of the 2018 budget bill to fund the creation of 81 provincial and five Metro Manila district offices, purchase of additional vehicles and hiring of additional personnel.
鈥淸These] were among the items in their original shopping list but which was dropped by the Department of Budget and Management and not included in the National Expenditure Program and the House version of the General Appropriations Bill,鈥� Lacson said.
Sen. Loren Legarda, finance committee chair, hinted on Wednesday night that the PNP might entirely or partially lose its drug war budget as the panel reviewed the allocation.
鈥淲e will see and rationalize the P900-million budget鈥攈ow much is intended for the upkeep of police stations, for guns and buy-bust operations,鈥� Legarda told reporters.
鈥淲e will remove what is unnecessary and we will realign it to other agencies or other line items of the budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG),鈥� she added.
Drop boxes
During floor deliberations on the DILG鈥檚 budget, representatives of the agency and the PNP told the senators that they were amenable in scrapping the 鈥淭okhang Drop Box鈥� following a plea from Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
鈥淚 strongly suggest that the DILG eliminate the drop boxes from its antidrugs campaign. It will only be prone to malice and abuse, and could even lead to unnecessary deaths,鈥� Hontiveros said on the floor.
Under the DILG鈥檚 community-based 鈥淢asa Masid鈥� program, villages, municipalities and cities were directed to set up drop boxes to allow the public to anonymously report alleged drug dependents, peddlers and other criminals.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said on Thursday that a big portion of the P900-million fund could be used to augment the PDEA鈥檚 budget and the excess could be realigned to support housing and social services.