It’s that time of year again when local governments prepare their budgets for next year, and as expected, Cebu isn’t about to ignore President Rodrigo Duterte’s favorite campaign against illegal drugs in their respective wish lists.
Cebu City has allocated P50 million for its antidrugs program, a substantial increase from the paltry P1.2 million of last year, and Mandaue City made room for P10 million in its budget while forgoing the massive drainage and road network projects in favor of a definite master plan.
The province is also allocating a substantial amount for the antidrugs campaign while local governments in the province are expected to follow suit if only to make an impression on the President and his Interior and Local Government secretary, who recently implemented an order to remove Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s authority over the police.
Apparently, the mayor wanted no repeat of that embarrassing incident and increased the budget for the antidrug campaign substantially to no one’s surprise. But unlike Mandaue City, the bulk of the budget will go to rehabilitation and helping drug surrenderers rebuild their lives rather than operations, the frequency of which will not be
hampered and slowed down anytime soon as evidenced by the continuing deaths of drug suspects.
A similar approach is being taken by the provincial government as Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III remains a firm adherent to the rule of law and his governance style of consensus building rather than unilateral action.
The series of meetings with stakeholders had shown a more diversified and holistic approach to resolving the drug problem, which is laudable in this day and age of summary executions of drug suspects by still unidentified vigilantes as well as the deaths of drug suspects who “refuse to surrender” and perish in shootouts with the police.
In contrast, Mandaue City’s P10-million budget will fund police operations and equipment in the war against illegal drugs, but Mayor Luigi Quisumbing had reiterated that he continues to believe in the rule of law and prefers capture to shootouts.
Being a first-time mayor, it’s understandable if Quisumbing wants to make a good show of his performance before the DILG — any local government in Cebu for that matter — in the war against illegal drugs; but as shown by the Cebu Archdiocese, which decided to set up its own massive rehabilitation program for repentant drug users, there is a better way to resolve the drug menace without resorting to excessive violence.
If Cebu LGUs were to increase their funding for the war against illegal drugs, then it should wisely allocate support not only by destroying the apparatus and network of drug syndicates but also by helping drug users recover and rebuild their lives.