THE biggest problem facing the country is not the economy, law and order or political insurgency, but the infiltration of drugs from overseas, according to Interior and Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan.
Mr Alunan estimates that 800,000 people, or 10 per cent of Manila's population, are drug users, victims of an industry that is said to turn over 100 billion pesetas (about HK$29.6 billion) a year in the most popular street drug alone, metamphetamine hydrochloride, or 'ice'.
Mr Alunan, whose department overseas the domestic law enforcement agencies, said 44 of the 56 foreigners in maximum security jails had been convicted on drug-related charges.
Congressman Roilo Golez, who has sponsored a resolution for an inquiry into the drug trade by the House Committee on Public Order and Security, said drugs were 'the most devastating problem plaguing the country'.
'Now is the time for total war, side by side with the necessary tougher drug measures,' he said.
'The reimposition of the death penalty for drug-related crimes has failed to deter the operation of the syndicates.' Figures are not available for the number of drug users outside Manila, but there is a substantial number of drug addicts in northern Luzon, which is the second largest producer of marijuana in the world behind Mexico, according to the former chairman of the Philippine Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Illegal Drugs, Senator Ernesto Herrera.
