EDITORIAL - Impunity

When anti-narcotics agents dismantled a drug “tiangge” or virtual flea market within spitting distance of the Pasig City Hall in February 2006, several police and barangay officials were linked to the illegal activities of the suspected drug den operator, Amin Imam Boratong.

Cops and barangay officials are not the only public servants protecting drug dealers. The illegal drug trade is big business; drug money can buy prosecutors, judges, politicians and narcotics agents. Notorious drug dealers have been acquitted on purported technicalities by corrupt judges. Drug suspects have walked out of supposedly secure detention centers right at the headquarters of the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame. Foreign suspects facing drug charges have been allowed to leave the country by corrupt immigration agents. Almost all raids on shabu laboratories nationwide have failed to result in the arrest of the drug dealers themselves.

It’s not surprising that Boratong is believed to be responsible for the continued illegal drug trade in Pasig, with the base of operations just behind city hall. Boratong is believed to own the so-called Malacañang House in Barangay Sto. Tomas, which was raided last Friday by anti-narcotics agents. The raiders reported confiscating 200 grams of shabu. Not a substantial haul, but the fact that illegal drug activities continue to flourish, and so close to the seat of government in Pasig City, is a cause for concern. Especially since Boratong and his second wife, Sheryl Molera, have been detained since November 2006 at the National Bureau of Investigation in connection with the raid on the shabu tiangge.

The man who reportedly sneaked a camera into the tiangge before the 2006 raid and gave the footage to GMA-7, German Colisao, was found dead with three gunshot wounds in Pasig City. Boratong was indicted for the murder but later cleared by then justice secretary Raul Gonzalez, who cited insufficiency of evidence.

What will it take, and how much time is needed to convict a man accused of drug trafficking? The case against Boratong has dragged on for three years. What will it take to stop the drug trade in Pasig? Anti-narcotics agents point to public fear and apathy for the continued drug trade in the city. The fear is understandable, considering the fate of Colisao and the impunity of the city’s drug traffickers. But that fear can be overcome if his murderers are caught and made to pay for his death. If citizens are scared, it is the duty of the government to erase that fear. It is not enough to arrest criminals. They must also be punished for their crimes, and stopped from continuing their criminal activities.