PUNCHLINE

By October 30, 2017Opinion, Punchline

Wanted: More data on war on drugs

 

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

WITH hopes of seeing Pangasinan possibly as the first province in the region to be declared drug-free, there are still questions that beg some answers from the Pangasinan PNP-PDEA to assure communities that these are now safe from the clutches of drug pushers, financiers and protectors.

How many, and who among the notorious drug financiers and pushers in the province have been arrested, killed in buy-bust operations? How many government employees, lawmen and public officials were arrested? How many of the self-confessed drug pushers have completed their rehab programs? How many barangay officials have been the subject of ‘Oplan Tokhang’? How many more drug personalities need to be accounted for?

If these data in the national level are made available by PNP -PDEA and regularly updated, surely Pangasinan PNP-PDEA would have the data supplied to their national headquarters. (Check out http://pia.gov.ph/realnumbers)

Regular updates on these facts and others will help put many minds at ease even as Mr. Duterte and the police, are being criticized in the national mainstream and social media regularly for the conduct of the war on drugs.

Provincial PNP-PDEA’s updates on ongoing community-based rehabilitation programs in the province will also help assure communities that the campaign is focused on rehabilitation and healing of drug users being victims. It will also help belie the war on drugs’ detractors claim that the campaign is all about killing of drug suspects.

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DRUG-ALERT IN DAGUPAN. It looks like Dagupan City is not even close to being a drug-free city.

My informant closely monitoring drug dealing in Dagupan swears a drug pusher on the police drug watch list in Rizal Ext. has relocated to Sito Pantal Norte in Barangay Pantal and doing brisk business with two known female peddlers in the barangay.

Buyers on motorcycles keep coming and going in that area late night. Is it possible that Barangay Pantal’s Anti Drug Advisory Council (ADAC) is not aware of it? My informant says it sure looks like the drug peddling in the barangay is again enjoying some protection.

Note that Barangay Pantal was already declared drug-clear months back. One, therefore, cannot but wonder if other barangays in the city earlier declared drug-free are again drug-affected.

The PUNCH is also in receipt of yet an unverified information that a mini shabu laboratory is operating in the city and that uses a restaurant and lodging house as fronts. An odorous scent of a chemical mix emitted by a smoke close to midnight permeates the quiet nights about three times a week and suspected to be originating from the location of the restaurant and lodging house.

These are two situations that require urgent action from the Dagupan City Anti-Drug Advisory Council, in the light of PDU30’s recent order pulling out the police from the war on drugs! If the ADACs of both barangays and city are inclined to ignore these alerts, I won’t be surprised if the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency will soon again label Dagupan City as a major source of drug distribution not only in the province but in the region.

That two barangays in the city remain drug-affected to date (since July 1, 2016) is telling enough.

Police Chief P/Supt. Franklin Oritz should report how the war on drugs is proceeding in the city, particularly if there are other barangays again drug-affected in addition to Barangay Pantal.  

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MUCH ADO OVER A CLAIM. Not a few regular PUNCH readers and colleagues in the local media industry have chided us, specifically asking me if we have conceded The PUNCH’s claim as ‘Pangasinan’s News Leader’ because a local radio station has been bandying the claim that it is “Pangasinan‘s News Leader.”

On this issue, I maintain that anyone is free to make a claim, whether it is whimsical, fake or true.

On the radio station’s claim, I wonder if it has been rated to have the highest listenership in the province. If it is, then it has the rightful claim to be the No. 1 radio station in Pangasinan, however, I understand, and to its credit, it does not make that bold claim, not yet, because it knows it is not. I surmise that since it is not able to do that, the radio station probably thinks it can make the same claim as The PUNCH does because the claim is not quantifiable. That is true, except that it failed to see that it even takes more than just making that claim to make it stick and credible.

But in fairness to the radio station, it does not claim The PUNCH is not, but simply the station is and was first (?) to make the claim. Ok, whatever…

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WHO DETERMINES? What indeed, makes for a credible media establishment a news leader?

From our viewpoint, it’s really for the local community to decide, particularly the media community. After all, it is our media practitioners who’ve been chasing the news as a career and are able to keep track of media issues as well. They know which media outlet in Pangasinan has served current news, information and critical opinions to Pangasinenses in the country and overseas since 1956 without fail through national emergencies or calamities.

They know which community media outlet in the country was the first to use the Internet to deliver news about Pangasinan; which news establishment in Pangasinan has seen the service of past and today’s most respected print and broadcast journalists in in the province over six decades.

They know which media outlet in Pangasinan has consistently been on top of community issues, from corruption in governance to developmental issues to personal and community celebrations while remaining true to its calling – “No man is to be reverenced more than the truth- Socrates.”

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FACTUAL CLAIM VS. FAKE CLAIM. So if perhaps we are no longer the news leader that we’d like to believe we are, we will humbly bow to the general impression of the local and national media sector, but certainly not by one radio establishment.

So far, we’ve not been called out by the media industry for steadfastly making that claim hopefully because they know we’ve paid our dues consistently delivering the top news ethically for the past 6 decades. (The dismissal of all libel cases filed against The PUNCH is proof of that).

So, is The PUNCH conceding its position and claim? Should we? Like I said, everyone in our country is free to coin, copy, duplicate slogans or claims for his/her own interests, whether it’s true or fake. But whether it will be believed is another story.

But hey, I will readily concede is if the radio station makes the claim that it has more radio listeners than The PUNCH! That’s a factual claim, not fake!

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IN GOOD HANDS. We look forward to more reforms in delivery of health services to the nation under the leadership of Dr. Francisco ‘Pincoy’ Duque III as Health Secretary in PDU3O’s official family. Let’s wish him success in his undertakings.  

Between PUNCH fire player Gonz as SSS Commissioner, Dr. Pincoy as Health Sec., Gen. Hermogenes Esperon as National Security Adviser, Rachel Arenas as MTRCB chair, Pangasinan is in good hands under PDU30.

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