THE DRUG-WAR: WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE? When you say �Dirty Harry�, better be ready Another boss of Fred Lim, if the plantilla shown me yesterday is followed, will be Undersecretary Anselmo S. Avenido, Jr., Director General of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). He, too, is a retired police general. He was, in fact, Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy director general before he retired. announced the appointment of Avenido to head the PDEA on July 19, 2002, last year, and he was endowed with the title of "Drug Czar". everybody�s a Drug Czar or Czar of something or other � we�ve had more Czars in this country than the Romanovs of Russia.) Avenido and Lim, of course, as in the case of Barbers, have worked together in the past, and are on the best of terms. the line will be a clash of wills and personalities. After all, Avenido was always at the top of his class in the University of the Philippines, the Ateneo de Manila, and in his studies abroad.
from the Philippine Military Academy (Class 1967), he was "Baron" of the Academy which is, in broad terms, not strictly academic valedictorian but Tops inHis classmates and peers in PMA �67 were former PNP Director General Roberto "Bobby" Lastimoso, the current Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief and DOTC Asst. Secretary who had been the recipient of that unfortunate televised scolding by GMA, and former PNP Chief, Police General Santiago Ali�o. Barbers, Avenido and Lim � a great combination in theory � but who�s the real I had a heart-to-heart talk with our old friend, Fred, over lunch yesterday, and I personally told him the very caveats I�ve now put in writing, so I�m not telling any tales out of school. After our lunch, he went on to his meeting with Barbers and the other two potential gang-busters, Fred�s former right-hand man in the NBI, Captain Reynaldo Jaylo, originally from the Western Police District;
and another two-fisted cop, retired Major Lucio Margallo, who conducted drug busts aplenty in the past. At 6 p.m. yesterday, Lim met in Malaca�ang with Presidential Executive Secretary Bert Romulo, who�s straight as a dye and must not be confused with his cousin. "Triple R", or Roberto R. Romulo. Bert confirmed Lim�s designation as Presidential Adviser on Illegal Drugs. In sum, the way I understand it, while Barbers has "over-all" chairmanship, and USEC Avenido will cooperate, and the group will operate under the blanket of the two "chairmen", Lim and his 60 agents and policemen will have operational independence � or, at least, a mandate close to "independence". Both Jaylo and Margallo will enjoy the ranks of Director 2 and Director 3 in the PDEA which, I understand, will entitle them to monthly paychecks of betweenEach of the two will head a "Team". Lim hopes to recruit a third crackerjack officer, Police Col. Carlos Baltazar,
who�s currently in the Inspectorate of the Western Police District (WPD) which means, in police parlance, the "freezer" in the PNP. Baltazar was consigned to virtual floating status and the freezer owing to his closeness to Lim � but, if Barbers and Lim so decide, he will be "liberated" immediately after his coming retirement by being placed in charge of the Third Team of the "Untouchables". Lim, of course, has been empowered to handpick the men under his command. This is the brave enterprise which will be hopefully launched shortly � to attack the P30 billion-a-year Drug Monster. GMA, when the chips are down, must resolve to back Fred Lim and his agentsFor there will be strong pressures put on her and the public, with innuendos designed to demolish them, defang them, or intrigue them out of the Already, cellphone texts have been flying all over the place alleging that Barbers can�t be trusted to combat the drug syndicates since his own home
province of Surigao del Norte is "reportedly" awash in drugs like shabu. In short, the "black" propagandists declare, if you can�t clean up your own home province, how on earth can you clean up the nation? The texts even hint that Barbers is the protector and godfather of the drug trade in his province. texters claim the senator has a P126-million mansion there � wow! sure their next targets will be Lim, Jaylo and Margallo. Lim has been called in the media, admiringly, "Dirty Harry", with a bow to movie action star Clint Eastwood�s fast-gun character, and the flicker, Make MyWhen you�re fighting in the gutter, indeed, it gets dirty. octopus is not defeated by playing by the Marquess of Queensbury rules. Nobody knows the frustration of a good cop who had to outdraw his opponents better than Captain Rey Jaylo, who�s famous for the "double tap" by which he outgunned many assailants who were shooting at him. Would you believe, after 13 years, Jaylo is still defending himself in a case of
homicide filed against him for that shootout in the parking lot of the Magallanes Commercial Center of Makati, which occurred on July 12, 1990?It had been a drug "buy-bust" operation. Jaylo, a WPD police captain, was heading the NBI special task force which "busted" the heroin dealers involved � lo and behold, the men Jaylo and his group tried to apprehend turned out to be no less than the Deputy Commander of the military Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), Col. Rolando de Guzman, and Major Franco Calanog, Nolcom Intelligence Chief, plus a PC-CIS civilian agent named Avelino Manguera. The three allegedly tried to draw their weapons, but Jaylo and his team wereWhen the smoke cleared, the three men were down. No less than 10 kilos of heroin, at that time worth P230 million, were recovered from their car. It seems that De Guzman had been a PMA classmate of Armed Forces Chief of Staff Renato de Villa, who ordered a probe of Jaylo and his men, directing the then
Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police Chief, General Cesar Nazareno, to handle the investigation with the CIS (Criminal Investigation Service) as the In sum, this odds were stacked against Jaylo from the very beginning � in disgust, he resigned from the service. Loyally, 40 of his policemen alsoFred Lim was then NBI Director (and police Major General), so he incorporated those resigned cops into the NBI. As for Colonel de Guzman, he was buried by his PMA "mistahs" with full military honors and interred in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Since officers who were PMA graduates and "cavaliers" have recently been captured as members or leaders of kidnap gangs, as well as involved in other crimes, the anti-drug Teams may have to grapple with the same kind of "Old Boys Club" fraternal loyalty, if they ever encounter PMA rogue-criminals in drug busts and, in the extreme, in shoot-outs. Will they be made to suffer the same
fate as Jaylo, who�s been defending himself out of pocket in court � this time the Sandiganbayan � for so many years? It�s time for the President and her top brass to make it abundantly clear that the fight against the drug menace must be a fight to the finish. destructive "disease" has already enslaved four million addicts here! Malaysia, it was just revealed, there�s a new addict every 30 minutes, and their population of 22 million is much less than ours.) Our policy has to be, if we hope to win this life-or-death struggle, "zeroIf baril-sa-baril is required, then we�ll have to bring in Remember, the drug lords and their powerful syndicates maintain armies of goons and enforcers, many of them policemen. They have big-time politicians in theirThey have the best lawyers, prosecutors, and judges money can buy. The word is kamandag. They have more "cash-and-carry" money than the national government. It will take more than Jack the Giant Killer to tackle this Giant.