'STOP BICKERING, START GOING AFTER BIG-TIME DRUG LORDS' - KIKO

Independent senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan today issued a strong challenge to Malacañang on the country's growing drug problem: "Stop bickering over mandatory drug testing and go after big-time drug syndicates."

Kiko was reacting to the continuing debate over whether or not mandatory drug testing in schools demonstrated a violation of students' rights. While the senator strongly supports the campaign against illegal drugs, he expressed his doubts over the impact of mandatory drug testing on addressing the roots of illegal drug use in the Philippines.

"The debate on mandatory drug testing in schools diverts public attention and government focus from the real problem, which is the unabated operations of drug syndicates in the country," Kiko pointed out. "The drug lords must be laughing as government agencies debate with one another on the issue of mandatory drug testing."

Kiko strongly urged Malacañang to focus its efforts on catching the "big fish" instead of getting trapped in rhetoric that will hardly make a dent on solving the problem.

"If this is the way to begin the all-out war against drugs then it is headed nowhere," Kiko commented. "The focus should be to expose the supposed 30 drug syndicates operating in the country. "Who are they? Where are they operating?"

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week named herself the country's "anti-drug czar", a move that has been criticized by some lawmakers as contributing only to the noise surrounding the issue but offering no real solutions to wiping out the country's big-time and well-entrenched drug syndicates.