drug authorities vowed Monday to launch a relentless Mexico-style campaign against drug syndicates following the reported kidnapping and rape of an anti-drug agent's young daughter by suspected members of a drug ring. The vicious assault prompted the Malacanang presidential palace to declare: “This is now a war on drugs.” The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said it will intensify its fight against illegal drugs now that drug rings have drawn “first blood.” “If this is going to be like Mexico, so be it. We'll fight them to the finish,” PDEA chief Dionisio Santiago said in a radio interview. “When we got into this line of work, we knew we were also risking the lives of our families. We won't allow those scoundrels to beat us.” Santiago was referring to the raging drug war in Mexico which involves a conflict among rival drug cartels and government forces. Reports said some 10,000 drug traffickers, state agents and civilians have already been killed in drug war-related incidents in Mexico since 2007 . The reported abduction and rape of the anti-drug agent's daughter over the weekend also sparked moves in Congress to revive the death penalty in the Philippines for drug traffickers. House of Representatives Speaker Prospero Nograles said he is now ready to support the revival of capital punishment for certain criminals following the assault on the anti-drug agent's daughter and the series of bombings in Mindanao. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the daughter of the anti-drug agent was kidnapped last Saturday and later found drugged and sexually abused at around 6 a.m. Sunday near a military facility in Luzon. The girl is “still in shock” and is confined in a hospital, the report said. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who had declared herself as the country's anti-drug czar, has been told of the incident.”The President has just been informed. “We will mobilize all forces to help the family involved,” Remonde said. Santiago said he suspects the girl's assailants have connection with corrupt lawmen. “Some gangs move around without fear because they are in cahoots with corrupt law enforcement authorities,” he said. A top government official, who was the source of the Inquirer report, said he believes the assault on the girl was “the handiwork of a drug syndicate which was the subject of a recent crackdown.” He described the syndicate as “well-connected politically.” “This involves narco-politics,” he added. Officials said the brazen assault appeared to indicate the growing menace of the drug problem in the Philippines. The 2009 World Drug Report released by the United Nations recently said the Philippines was fifth country in the world with the biggest number of drug seizures after China, the United States, Thailand and Taiwan from 1998 to 2007. “The Philippines remains a significant source of high potency crystalline methamphetamine used both domestically and exported to locations in East and Southeast Asia and Oceania,” the report said. Officials said of the country's 3.4 million drug users, 1.8 million are regular users while 1.6 million are occasional users. Officials have put the value of the illegal drugs trade in the country from 300 billion pesos ($6.25 billion) to 150 billion pesos ($3.1 billion) a year.
