By Lorenzo Dela Cerna

CEBU City - Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Vice Chair Paul Oaminal urged the public to read and study the report of the US State Department which stated the attempt or possibility that drug money will be used in the May 10 elections.

The report also acknowledged the remarkable decline of drug supply and demand in the country.
Last year, a total of 105,942 cases were filed with 75,414 still pending.

In Region 7, as of December 31, 2009, the report said 728 drug cases were won by the government of the 1,288 cases resolved. Last year 9,635 cases were filed; 8,263 are still pending.

Oaminal explained that despite the accomplishment of having won drug cases, public perception demands that drug cases must be resolved the earliest possible time.

“Because it is only when those arrested are finally convicted that the people would believe in the sincerity of the government in going after drug offenders,” he stressed.

The long hearing of drug cases is due to the present structure of the judiciary that drug courts still hear other cases.

Unless special drug courts will be created this year as planned by Vicente Sotto III, former DDB chair, drug cases would further clog the court dockets, Oaminal said.

He said the present set-up would never cope with the anti-drug operations which result to the filing of cases.

Meanwhile, Oaminal congratulated the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 7 and the police for their continued efforts in arresting cocaine couriers.

“The cases won were the result of the cooperation of the pillars of the law enforcement, prosecution and the persistence of the judges to hear and decide cases within the most reasonable time,” he said./PN