“Addiction isn’t about substance—you aren’t
addicted to the substance. You are addicted to the alteration of mood that the
substance brings.” Susan Cheever
By Alex P. Vidal
SAD to say, the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has failed to stop the proliferation
of illegal drugs in many campuses.
Classes have closed but
not a single drug pusher that catered to university and college students was
apprehended.
What was tackled in the
media was “survival sex” or prostitution involving teenage students who sold
their bodies for tuition and allowances.
The City Council even
responded to the clamor of a university professor about “survival sex” and held
a committee hearing on the issue.
Nothing has been heard
after those committee hearings.
“The No. 1 problem that
hounds the students (in some universities and colleges in Iloilo) today is
illegal drugs. Prostitution is not new. It’s also a concern, but the problems
on illegal drugs are still the most serious,” said a retired prosecutor who
refused to be named because his grandchildren are studying in one of the universities
involved.
RETIRED
The retired prosecutor
said he does not want his grandchildren to be involved in illegal drugs and
wants school authorities to tackle the problem with utmost priority in the next
school opening.
His nephew was once
arrested in a buy-bust operation conducted in Jaro “and I don’t want my
grandchildren to remember anything about that incident.”
Sources said drug
peddlers used small eateries and restaurants located in the university belts to
transact business with students.
Shabu “runners” mixed
with potential buyers in billiard halls, 24-hour min-marts, bakery and coffee shops
and sometimes could be mistaken as university or office employees because they
wore formal attires, sources said.
“Kambio banga” (a term coined
by shabu pushers to refer to college coeds who offer sex services for shabu) is
a combination of illegal drugs and prostitution “and the most serious problem
that has not been addressed until now,” lamented the retired prosecutor.
CASH
College students short
of cash don’t need to steal money to buy shabu, it was learned.
They offer their bodies
for sex for shabu.
“They perform the sexual
services while under the influence of shabu,” confirmed our informant, “Mr.
Tooth Decay.”
Many students have
dropped out and will miss the graduation ceremonies this summer because they
are hooked on shabu; meaning they didn’t take their studies seriously and their
schooling was interrupted by their addiction to illegal drugs, said our sources
from the Central Philippine University (CPU) in Jaro district and University of
Iloilo (UI) in the City Proper in Iloilo City.
-o0o-
UPDATE ON BONIFACIO
DRIVE TRAFFIC. As of this writing, traffic jam was still giving motorists a colossal
headache and terrible inconvenience on
Bonifacio Drive, Iloilo City Proper due to the ongoing road-widening project of
the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
From the foot of the
Forbes Bridge that links the City Proper to the district of La Paz, vehicles
are trapped especially during rush hours.
The road going to the
Atrium Mall could accommodate only a single lane.
Traffic management
authorities should have declared the area as “one-way” only before the start of
the DPWH project last March 2.
If they could not do it
because they were not authorized, they should have sought the help of the City
Council, which should have passed a resolution declaring the Bonifacio Drive as
“one way” only.
This is clearly a case
of a “small” problem that has been neglected.
