phillipines massive student drug testing

Under the terms of the SiYi joint venture (pun not intended), SiYi has first right of refusal to supply all other Asian markets - including the Phillipines - with Oraline.

In this context, recent developments in the Phillipines are exciting and very timely in terms of where SiYi is up to with final approvals.

The SiYi plant, of course, is up and running and final field testing is well under way.

The arguments for saliva (rather than urine) testing of students is compelling due to the privacy/intrusiveness issues with young people.

The Phillipines population - at around 90 million - is nearly as big as Mexico's so this is a significant potential market. Whether or not the testing process has the same difficulties getting up, as in Mexico, who knows?

But the Phillipines President has just personally taken over the leadership of the 'drugs war' in the Phillipines, and in doing so, she has committed to "massive student drug testing" - as detailed in this editorial in today's Manila Times:


Friday, January 16, 2009

EDITORIAL

Support the President as drug-war czarina

PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo’s appointment of herself on Tuesday as the “czar” to lead the government’s fight against illegal drugs has been attacked by some quarters.

Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casino and many other opposition personalities have said President Arroyo was “over-acting and grandstanding.” But some citizens have come out in Mrs. Arroyo’s defense. (See Letters.)

Subsequent to the big news about the President’s putting on the helmet of the drug-war czar, it was announced that she was planning to conduct massive drug testing of students.

This is of course something she and the other officials engaged in the anti-drug war find necessary because the Philippines has the largest population of illegal drug users from age 15 to 65 in Asia.

And the US government has identified the Philippines as a major Asian transit point for drugs, including methamphetamines, heroin and “ecstasy” party pills.

Independent crime watchdogs say that Manila has among the region’s toughest drug laws—condemning traffickers to life imprisonment (it would have been death before we decided to abolish the death penalty.) But law-enforcement agencies are crippled by corruption.

Students oppose campus testing

The League of Filipino Students (LFS), a militant and active organization, attacked the President’s assumption of the new role and bitterly criticized her campus drug-testing plan.

Impolitely as usual, LFS, represented by its national chairman Vencer Crisostomo, said: “A power and money addict like Arroyo cannot be trusted to solve drug addiction. She could be using the drug issue for political maneuverings and tapping the anti-drug campaign funds for corruption and for the 2010 elections.”

The student group is also strongly against the proliferation of illegal drugs in campuses. But it is vehemently against the plan to do drugs tests on a massive scale on campuses.

“They are using the students as props for their media blitz. If you think about it, these measures do not really address the drug problem,” said Crisostomo.

What the LFS wants is for current security measures already in place as laws or regulations to be carried out. LFS also wants the authorities to “do their job” and “arrest big time syndicates and drug pushers.”

“Why risk violation of rights and a frenzy of discrimination in schools when the measure will not solve the root of the problem? If they are really serious, they should target the drug lords and the big time syndicates, most of which are also connected to government,” Crisostomo said.

“Who will pay for the tests? In private schools, this might be used as another unjust income generating scheme. In public high schools and universities meanwhile, it is ridiculous to spend much money on this when the students do not have even the basic needs like books and classrooms,” Crisostomo asked.

Lawyers connected with the Office of the Solicitor General, while agreeing with the President’s move to act as drug-fighting czar, also called on her and the PDEA to go hammer and tongs against the bigtime drug lords.

President Arroyo was clear about this self-assignment being only temporary. “I will temporarily act as the czar, or overseer of the war against illegal drugs. Then, I will turn over the job to the tandem of Tito Sotto and Jionex Santiago,” President Arroyo has said.

“Tito” Vicente Sotto 3rd is the former senator and TV and movie personality whom the President appointed – before the “Alabang Boys” drug scandal broke out — chief of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Jionex is Dionisio Santiago, who heads the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Leading senators and congressman also praised the President’s move.

“The drug problem is worse than the problem of terrorism,” Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said. “I am glad that the President is now our anti-drug czar, because all executive officers are under her. She can order a review of all drugs cases dismissed and their revival if warranted.”

“It is not bad for PDEA to seek [the President’s] help to curb illegal drugs. They [in the drug agency] are getting frustrated because they have been making numerous arrests but the suspects are usually released,” Zubiri also said, after expressing his opinion that Mrs. Arroyo’s move was not an indication that she had no confidence in Sotto and Santiago.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles, also praising the President, said “nobody can do [the job] better” because she has vast powers and resources that Sotto’s board and PDEA do not have.

Compromised, tainted and corrupted

The President had called illegal drugs termites that tear down the foundation of families and the entire society. She said a “a country awash with illegal drugs is a country compromised, its law-and-order institutions tainted and corrupted.”

Under Mrs. Arroyo’s direction the government agencies concerned are now mapping out an all-out war against the drug menace. That blueprint uses a three-pronged approach.

“The war shall be waged from three fronts, a trinity against illegal drugs,” the President said. The three components, according to her, will be law enforcement, judicial action and policy-making.

Barangays will be extensively used in fighting dealers and drug lords.

Ordinarily, The Times would have been against the President taking on responsibilities that are clearly assigned to definite agencies and their heads.

In the case of this war, we support the Commander-in-Chief and ask all Filipinos to join in the effort to rid our country of the drug menace.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/jan/16/yehey/opinion/20090116opi1.html