{"id":64329,"date":"2015-11-06T03:51:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T09:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=64329"},"modified":"2015-11-06T03:51:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T09:51:25","slug":"poe-to-fight-drugs-prioritize-foi-bill-if-elected-president-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/11\/06\/poe-to-fight-drugs-prioritize-foi-bill-if-elected-president-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Poe to fight drugs, prioritize FOI bill if elected president in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Presidential<\/a>
Presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe (Photo from Poe’s official Facebook page<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Should Senator Grace Poe be elected president in May 2016, she vowed to fight drug syndicates in the Philippines as drug smuggling activities in the country reportedly increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prevalence of drugs in the country is very disturbing, and I am surprised that it is not getting the attention and action it deserves,\u201d Poe said in a statement, asserting that a \u2018stronger government hand\u2019 was needed to combat drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we treat this as a national security threat, then it would no longer just be the problem of the Philippine National Police (PNP) but also of the military and other branches of government,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Poe then called on airports and seaports to strengthen their security measures to prevent illegal drugs from slipping in and out of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot fathom how our airport security personnel can spot a single bullet in passengers\u2019 luggage but could not detect something as huge and suspicious-looking as bags of cocaine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Priority bills<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aside from fighting drug syndicates, Poe would also prioritize the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, the modernization of the Customs and Tariff Act and the Build-Operate-Transfer Law should she become President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino III\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng mga priority bills natin<\/em>: number 1<\/em>, Freedom of Information<\/em>, para mabantayan ang gobyerno<\/em>; pangalawa<\/em>, modernization ng Customs and Tariff Act<\/em>; ito<\/em>, Build<\/em>, Operate<\/em>, Transfer<\/em>, amendement ng anti-red tape<\/em>; at siyempre<\/em> \u2018yung malapit sa puso ko, libreng pananghalian para sa mga bata<\/em>, first 100 days para sa mga buntis<\/em>,\u201d she said in an interview with radio dzMM.<\/p>\n

(Our priority bills: number 1, Freedom of Information, to watch over the government; second, modernization of the Customs and Tarriff Act; this, Build, Operate, Transfer; amendment of the anti-red tape; and of course those close to my heart, free lunch to children, first 100 days for the pregnant women.)<\/p>\n

\u2018Tanim-bala,\u2019 balikbayan boxes issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the \u2018tanim-bala\u2019<\/em> (bullet-planting) extortion scheme and the balikbayan<\/em> boxes issues, Poe believed that these could have been prevented or easily solved if there were reliable closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras properly positioned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and at the Bureau of Customs (BoC).<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Yung pag-iimbestiga<\/em>, kung mayroon lang mga tamang CCTV camera na nakaposisyon<\/em>, hindi tayo magdidiskusyon ngayon<\/em> (The investigation, if there were properly-positioned CCTV cameras, we will no longer be discussing here),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Should Senator Grace Poe be elected president in May 2016, she vowed to fight drug syndicates in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":64331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95,483],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-64329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-politics","tag-rewrite","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}