THE discovery of four secret shabu laboratories and storage facilities in Metro Manila this month alone should be enough reason for the Aquino government to flex its muscles and display real political will in stopping the drug menace in the country.

Sad to say, solving the drug problem in this country has remained a second priority of past and present governments which are always mired in politics. In fact, legislative measures that will help anti-narcotics authorities effectively fight the problem always takes the backseat for reasons known only to our present political leaders.

In over 20 years of covering the beat, I have known numerous anti-narcotics agents whose passion and dedication to do their job is immeasurable. These ‘unsung heroes’  will stay awake for two to three days while doing surveillance works on drug manufacturers and dealers. Some of these officers have been killed in the line of duty, some have retired already only to be replaced by a new bunch of officers who also have the same passion to get drug lords in the land.

However, its more than 20 years but still, the same problem hounds the country’s anti-narcotics units namely: lack of resources, manpower and much tougher laws to fight the problem.

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Consider this fact. In last Thursday’s successful raid on a Caloocan clan lab where an estimated P1 billion worth of semi-finished shabu were recovered, I was told the more than a dozen officers and men of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force hardly slept for nearly three days prior to the actual raid.

After the search warrant was approved by a Q.C. judge following testimonies from some of the undercover agents, the same set of policemen also conducted the raid and the subsequent search and seizure operations which lasted before midnight Thursday. To top it all, some of the officers were also the ones who did the after-operations report required by the higher headquarters ASAP.

Just imagine the plight of these officers who are not only exposed to dangers posed by the syndicate but also to medical hazards coming from lack of rest and sleep and most importantly, to the toxic chemicals found inside the Caloocan compound. Imagine also the amount of money needed to pay for the gasoline and food- don’t include the vitamins anymore-of the agents who have to sleep inside their vehicles, sometimes with engines not running so as not to alarm anybody.

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There is also the problem of coordination with local authorities, I was told. An official told me that since the level of corruption in the ground is high, they see to it that their operations are shrouded in secrecy until the actual raid materializes. The ‘burnt-out’ operation in Caloocan City was the reason why suspects managed to escape, I learned.

Coordinating operations with local territorial units risk the possibility that an anti-narcotics raid might be burned out, or deliberately leaked to the suspects themselves by some rogue officers to give them the opportunity to escape and cover their tracks.

In the Caloocan and Quezon City raids, I learned that some vehicles being used by the AIDSOTF near their target were subjected to a spot check by the local police and there goes the problem. The presence of police mobile cars checking the occupants of a private vehicle and leaving them after a while after they turned out to be officers on a surveillance mission will always alert a syndicate.

I can’t blame those AIDSOTF agents and their counterparts from the local police. I know that the AIDSOTF will not risk the possibility that their operations will be exposed if they will fully coordinate their operations with the local police and give exact details of their vehicles’ make, type and plate numbers, worst, even their locations.

Can’t blame the local police too because they have to act on reports on suspicious activities taking place in their jurisdiction.

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The problem of coordination will always remain a problem as long as there are no sufficient laws to address it. As to date, both the AIDSOTF and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency are always confronted by the problem of coordinating their operations with even local village officials and the utility services like Meralco and the telecommunications’ companies.

During the raid at the posh Ayala Alabang village in Muntinlupa City, PDEA agents headed by Undersecretary Sonny Gutierrez had a hard time entering the exclusive subdivision which is home to some of the country’s rich and famous due to strict subdivision regulations barring the entry of unauthorized persons.

So far, three clandestine drug labs have been found inside Ayala Alabang: the first was located at no. 504 Acacia Avenue which was raided by the PDEA last January 6 and the second and third were found respectively at no. 119 Kanlaon Street and No. 536 Country Club Drive.

All three secret drug factories are believed to be also connected with the Caloocan and Quezon City drug facilities smashed by the PNP-AIDSOTF during an operation personally supervised by PNP chief, General Nick Bartolome last Thursday. (I’m asking Gen. Bartolome not to hold chemicals being found inside a clan lab since they are very toxic and pose hazard to one’s health. Even with gloves on, the skin can be penetrated by chemicals which can cause illness or even life-threatening diseases, Sir.).

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What the Aquino government needs now is to focus its eyes on upgrading the facilities and pouring in more resources, including manpower to the PDEA, the PNP-AIDSOTF and the NBI whose agents are tasked to fight the problem with the PDEA as the lead agency.

The drug problem however can’t be solved as long as units like the PNP-AIDSOTF only have four vehicles for use in surveillance and actual raids, as long as it only has a little less than 100 officers and men tasked to fight drugs.

The drug menace can’t be solved as long as the PDEA still has a very minimal manpower to cover the entire Philippine territory particularly its long coastlines which are being used to smuggle finished shabu products and its precursors.

The drug problem can not be solved as long as the law will always be in favor of moneyed drug lords and their rogue contacts from the government and other law enforcement agencies.

I will tell you without blinking an eye: Moneyed drug lords and their cohorts in the country are always three or five stops ahead of our law enforcers. This is the reason why they are still being able to build secret drug laboratories and storage facilities in the country despite so-many successful raids through the years.

It’s also the same reason why they are always able to escape.