MANILA, Philippines—Shock and rage at the reported rape of a narcotics agent’s daughter by drug traffickers swept official circles Monday, as the chief of a major drug enforcement agency warned of a bloody fight-to-the finish with drug lords.

Presidential aspirant Sen. Loren Legarda called on the Arroyo administration to “smash” drug syndicates, while Speaker Prospero Nograles said the Philippines must never allow itself to become a country where drug lords hold sway.

Retired Gen. Dionisio Santiago, chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said unless drug gangs were curtailed, the Philippines could become another Mexico, a country in Latin America where thousands of people have been killed in drug wars.

“We might end up becoming another Mexico, we will slug it out, it will be a who-will-be-wiped-out-first battle (unahan ng ubusan),” Santiago said in Filipino in an interview on radio dzBB.

Santiago hinted the government might even adopt the tit-for-tat strategy used in fighting the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sulu province, where security forces would take into custody the families of the gang to force it to release its hostages.

“If they (the drug syndicates) think they can stop us by attacking our families, they are committing a mistake,” Santiago said.

“It has happened before that when [the authorities] got back at the families of terrorists, they stopped their activities,” he said.

The angry reactions were prompted by the reported abduction and rape by members of an alleged drug syndicate of the daughter of a government agent involved in fighting illegal drugs. Law enforcers said they suspected the syndicate had political connections.

‘We will not be cowed’

Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan Jr., chair of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said the government would not be intimidated even if the drug syndicates had connections with “a congressman, mayor, police or general ... no matter how high up he is in the government.”

“We will not be cowed by this incident ... This is already all-out war,” Ablan said in an interview.

Three senators joined President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in calling for a total war against the drug mafias.

In a statement, Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development, said abduction and rape deserved “national condemnation in the highest order.”

She said the cycle of violence against women should be stopped using the full arsenal of government.

“Any act of violence committed against family members of law enforcement agents ... for the purpose of sowing fear should be considered aggravating circumstances in such crimes,” Legarda said.

In a separate statement, Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. said the attack on the girl was an “inhumane act.”

“I urge the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation to determine if the reports are true. If positive, this is indeed a wake up call to the government to launch an all-out war on illegal drugs” or citizens might take the law into their own hands, he said.

Revilla said that under the “rules of war,” civilians and minors should be spared from attack.

Syndicate-backed candidates

Legarda said that drug syndicates were becoming bolder and bolder.

“Because of the billions of pesos they are raking from their illegal drug trade, the syndicates have also poisoned the political system by backing candidates for public office who would later serve as their protectors in high office,” she said.

“Sometimes illegal drug traders themselves run for public office.”

Legarda added: “But the fact that they are getting bolder and penetrating politics and the government bureaucracy proves the ineptness and perhaps connivance of some top officials in the government in this pernicious trade.”

She also said that if the Arroyo administration could not curb the illegal drug trade, “we must elect a new administration that is determined and capable of stopping it.”

Not by soundbites

Sen. Francis Escudero scoffed at the knee-jerk reaction of the government in response to an old but growing menace, saying the war on drugs would not be won by soundbites but by an unrelenting campaign.

“Why only declare a war against drugs now when any administration is supposed to be doing so from Day One? How many times have the Abu Sayyaf resurrected itself after being declared a nuisance?” Escudero asked.

Nograles said the reported rape, which was clearly meant to sow terror among anti-drug agencies, had prompted him to support the re-imposition of the death penalty against drug traffickers as well as terrorist bombers.

“We should never allow the Philippines to become the next Colombia during the days of Pablo Escobar where even the government is being terrorized to submission,” Nograles said in a statement.

Muntinlupa Rep. Rufino Biazon said: “This crime is so heinous, so sinister and diabolical that it takes a particularly evil mind to conceive and do it.”

No to death penalty

But the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) held fast to its opposition to the restoration of the death penalty.

Puerto Princesa Bishop Pedro Arigo, who chairs the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, said the Catholic Church maintained that the death penalty was wrong “whether it is against illegal drug syndicates or anybody else.”

“They are barking up the wrong tree. Restoring the death penalty will not address the real problem,” the bishop said, adding that the problem was rooted in poor law enforcement and a weak judicial system.

“The system is weak. It’s prone to corruption and so loses credibility. That is why people are emboldened to commit crime because they know they can buy the system,” Arigo said.

The bishop said the death penalty had never been proven to be an effective deterrent against drug-related crimes. With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Dona Pazzibugan, Inquirer News Service