Drug-free sticker drive pushed amid criticism

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Philippine National Police (PNP) are still pushing for their plan to post “drug-free stickers” on qualified homes despite flak, particularly from human rights groups.

Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno also hit human rights groups, particularly Amnesty International, calling them “human wrong groups.”

Under the plan, stickers will be posted on drug-free houses. Those with no stickers will be the subject of interventions to be made by the barangay, the police and local peace and order councils to encourage concerned family members to come clean and support the government’s anti-drug campaign.

“So I told them (human rights groups), how are we violating human rights?” Sueno told members of the Police Regional Office 6 at Camp Martin Delgado in Iloilo City yesterday.

He compared DILG’s plan to former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim’s anti-drug campaign in the capital.

When Lim was Manila mayor, he had the houses of drug users spray-painted.

His opponents claimed his own son abused drugs.

“You used to say that Mayor Lim was violating human rights for spray-painting houses of drug addicts. But we are not doing that now,” Sueno said. “We are looking for homes which are drug-free. What’s the problem there? But they claim that we would be shaming those that would not qualify.”

Sueno argued that posting “drug-free” stickers on qualified homes is not shaming.

“We are shepherding them. We are not condemning them. But we are taking care of them,” he said.

“That’s why I say that the problem with Amnesty International and other human rights groups, they always see wrong on what we do. That is why we should not call them human rights groups. But we should call them international human wrong groups.

“We protect not only the rights of a Filipino as a person but we will also protect the rights of the people to survive, to develop, to prosper and to be happy as a Filipino nation,” he added.

Court ruled Lim’s strategy violation of privacy

However, an official of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) rebutted Sueno’s claims.

David Bermudo, CHR-Western Visayas chief, said that while Lim’s spray paint campaign was an effective anti-drug campaign strategy, the Court of Appeals declared it a violation of the right to privacy.

“If anybody commits an offense, it should be proved and charged properly in court,” Bermudo said. “That is the rule of law.”

Sueno said members of the peace and order councils, which include the PNP and village officials and watchmen, would be tapped to conduct the anti-illegal drug campaign.

Sueno was in Iloilo City yesterday for peace and order council meetings of Regions 6,7 and 8 and the Negros region.

“We are now in the process of consultation and dialog with the PNP, the barangays and other sectors to come up with an effective criteria on how we will be able to distinguish which houses in the barangays are drug-free,” he said.

The DILG chief said those who would not qualify would be asked to take part in the shepherding efforts until their homes are classified as drug-free.

“For families who are not qualified for a drug-free home, maybe because of the presence of a drug addict, we will not condemn them. We will take care of them,” he said.

“I go around listening to the best practices of our people. This is practiced in Bohol. And I found out that this is also practiced in Quezon City and Mandaluyong. We are gathering these practices and we are coming out with our final mechanics by the first or second week of March,” he added. – Jennifer Rendon, Gilbert Bayoran