The House of Representatives committee on dangerous drugs is poised to approve a consolidated bill amending Republic Act (RA) 9165 or the “Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act 0f 2002,” with the goal of strengthening the government’s hand in its sustained war on the highly lucrative illegal drugs trade.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, one of the bill’s principal authors, made the statement as the committee already formed a technical working group (TWG) to consolidate 10 bills proposing amendments to the 20-year-old RA 9165.
Villafuerte had authored one of these measures—House Bill (HB) 1278—with three other CamSur lawmakers.
HB 1278 aims “to expand our legal presumptions on who are considered importers, exporters and financiers of illegal drugs along with the protectors of this illicit trade, and penalties are likewise set in the proposed amendments to RA 9165 against these lawless elements and their coddlers in high places,” Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said.
“Our amendatory bill also proposes to improve the diligence and responsibility of lessors of real properties used for the illicit drug trade to ensure that their spaces are not abused for illegal activities such as housing drug laboratories,” he said.
He added that HB 1278 also “seeks to level up the effectiveness, capacity and training of the officers and staff of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in enforcement, as well as to improve the reward system for persons who provide useful information to enforcers for the arrest and prosecution of those behind the illicit drug trade.”
Villafuerte explained that the House dangerous drugs committee chaired by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers created in a public hearing last year a TWG to bring together into one bill HB 1278 and nine more measures proposing amendments to the anti-drugs law.
The TWG is headed by Leyte Rep. Richard Gomez, vice chairman of the dangerous drugs committee.
Villafuerte said the same measure was filed in the past Congress and was passed on third and final reading at the House of Representatives, but “was not acted upon” by the Senate.
“This measure was refiled in the 19th Congress in response to a clamor for the strengthening of our existing law on drugs,” Villafuerte said. “Our battle against illegal drugs remain difficult because of the inadequacies in our existing laws that are repeatedly abused by lawbreakers to avoid criminal prosecution.”
“Hence, we propose to strengthen RA 9165 to effectively support our fight against illicit drugs in the country,” said Villafuerte who authored HB 1278 with CamSur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata, and Bicol Saro Rep. Nicolas Enciso VIII.
Local government units (LGUs) are required by the bill to appropriate a substantial portion of not less than two percent of their respective annual budgets to assist in preventive or educational programs and the rehabilitation or treatment of drug dependents, in support of well-functioning anti-drug abuse councils (ADACs) and establishment of anti-drug abuse offices (ADAOs) in their localities.
Villafuerte’s HB 1278 slaps the maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a cash fine ranging from P500,000 to P10 million on any person who, unless authorized by law, either imports or exports any dangerous drug, regardless of the quantity and purity of the illicit product involved.
The bill states that anyone is presumed to have imported or exported dangerous drugs if found to “have in his or her possession or under his or her direct or indirect control any purchase order, memorandum receipt, delivery receipt, bill of lading, or any similar document containing information related to or in connection with importation or exportation to or from the Philippines dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals, until proven otherwise.”
The maximum prison term and cash penalty under the law is slapped, under HB 1278, on anyone who “organizes, manages or acts as a ‘financier’ of any of the activities” under the illegal drug trade.
Under the bill, any person is presumed to be a “financier” if he or she “causes the payment, raises, provides or supplies money for or underwrites the importation or exportation of dangerous drugs or controlled precursors and essential chemicals.”
“Any evidence showing delivery or transfer of money, or drawing or issuance of a check, monetary instrument or document to the account, custody or control of a person or entity known to be connected with or working for an importer or exporter of dangerous drugs or controlled precursors and essential chemicals, unless proven otherwise, is prima facie proof of the consent to or knowledge of the sender, transferor or issuer of the financing of the illegal importation or exportation of such dangerous drugs, controlled precursors and essential chemicals,” the bill states.
This presumption may only be overturned, says the bill, “upon presentation of proof that the importation or exportation is authorized or valid.”
HB 1278 retains the penalty under RA 9165 of 12 years and 1 day to 20 years imprisonment and a fine ranging from P100,000 to P500,000 on any person acting as a “protector or coddler” of any violator of this law.
But the bill adds a provision presuming any person as a protector or coddler of a dangerous drugs importer or exporter “if he/she knows the importer or exporter of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals, and he/she uses his/her influence, power or position to shield, harbor, screen or facilitate the escape of said importer or exporter.”
A person is likewise presumed a protector or coddler under this bill if he or she has knowledge of or has reasonable ground to believe that the violator is an importer or exporter of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals, and he or she uses his influence, power or position in preventing the arrest, prosecution or conviction of the importer or exporter.
Unless proven otherwise, the bill states that “anyone found or is present within the immediate vicinity of the area of sale, trading, marketing, dispensation, delivery or distribution” of dangerous drugs is “presumed to have been involved in the sale, trade or distribution of dangerous drugs, controlled precursors or essential chemicals.”
Under the bill, any person found in possession of dangerous drugs in a set quantity or weight, regardless of purity, is “presumed to have been engaged in selling, trading, dispensation, delivery or distribution of dangerous drugs.”