Chief Justice Lucas P. Bersamin on Thursday urged the government to collaborate with countries that are the source of illegal drugs and to intensify efforts to arrest traffickers and pushers.
READ: CJ leads national summit on Dangerous Drugs Law
In his keynote speech during the National Summit on Dangerous Drugs Law at the Manila Hotel, Bersamin said the government must match the ingenuity and creativity that drug traffickers have used to smuggle in drugs.
“Our alertness and quickness in frustrating such smuggling must be constant and unrelenting. We must collaborate with countries that are the origins of drug traffic in stifling the menace. We must, therefore, adapt to such ingenuity and creativity by training our law enforcers regularly and equipping them with sufficient and effective tools for the campaign to completely stop the delivery,” Bersamin said.
The Chief Justice said all concerned government agencies involved in the campaign against illegal drugs need to cooperate more closely.
“It is high time for our response to the drug menace to be made stronger through the adoption of a robust system of communication, cooperation, and coordination among all concerned agencies and offices, as well as of an operational legal framework to prosecute the traffickers and their minions,” he said.
During the Pre-Summit Conference Workshop on the Dangerous Drugs Law conducted by the Philippine Judicial Academy in Tagaytay City last month, Bersamin called on all participants to review the country’s drug policies and law enforcement capacity, saying “the biggest challenge for us is how to remain relevant and responsive considering the creative ways drug traffickers evade the authorities.”
The Chief Justice said that he expected that the national drug summit would “bring on the same page every agency and office of the government to respond to the need for a common front against the drug menace through the development and adoption of policies and procedures that render the handling of drug cases effective and efficient.”
