Citizen participation is an important factor in the campaign against illegal drugs and street crime.

This President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo empahasized as she called for intensified police work and vigilant community participation to contain the illicit drug trade and street crimes in the country.

During the PNP Command Conference in Malacaņang on Saturday, the President said the prime target in the anti-drug campaign is the drug pusher in the University Belt.

The President noted that good intelligence work, police presence and community participation could tighten up the campaign against illegal drugs and street crimes.

She instructed Philippine National Police Director General Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. to concentrate on enforcement functions rather than on educating the public on illegal drugs.

She reiterated that education and information dissemination on illegal drugs is one of the tasks of the local government units.

The President also stressed the need to institutionalize the Blue Guards (private security guards) in much the same way as the Barangay Tanods and to mobilize them against street crimes and drugs.

She said the creation of a neighborhood watch group is necessary for street crime prevention. However, she said they have to be under the supervision of a specific police officer.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo takes a stab in the next couple of weeks into depressed areas in the Visayas and Luzon which are the likely targets of the New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists seeking to expand their influence in the hinterlands.

"I want to know what the problems of the people are, why they are turning to the NPA, a group which claims to fight for democracy but really seeks to topple the government through violence," the President stressed during her weekly radio message aired this weekend.

Starting Tuesday (July 15), the President will make personal visits to the hinterland villages of Iloilo, Leyte and Eastern Samar to see for herself the extent and results of the government’s security and development initiatives in poverty-stricken areas.

The following week, she will traverse the Southern Tagalog and Bicol to make similar assessments of the situation in these regions and, if necessary, take immediate action on certain issues concerning the people.

"A President cannot be satisfied with merely reading reports from the field," the Chief Executive said. "A President must make personal, on-the-spot assessments of the most vital problems facing our people."

In all these forays into the countryside, the President will mobilize the local government units, including the barangays, civil society and the business community to support the peace and development goals of the administration.

She will also launch and strengthen during these sorties the various anti-poverty offensives of the government under the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan, or Kalahi, program.

The President noted that the NPA has stepped up attacks in recent weeks, killing and maiming innocent civilians.

She also said the communists were continuing to target public facilities and businesses, attacking those whose owners refuse to pay "revolutionary tax."

The President said she would launch "comprehensive countermeasures" in different sectors to fight an upsurge in communist rebel attacks in the countryside.

"The response to the violence of the NPA is our launch of comprehensive countermeasures where we will simultaneously use military, political and legal action to fight this group," she said. "We are combining all necessary measures to stop this threat and defeat it by the use of force, political action and long term social reforms," she added.

She also remarked that as the May, 2004 elections approach, the communists were preparing to go back to their old practice of demanding "election permits" from candidates who want to campaign in areas where they are active.