NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY The Philippines’ growing illegal drugs problem in particular needs a determined and proactive solution. Successive researches and pertinent crime statistics in the Philippines show a strong and direct correlation between crimes, especially serious or violent ones, and drug abuse. Any serious campaign to fight crime should therefore also involve a resolute crusade to stamp out drug abuse. This is a tough challenge. In 2015, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) reported that a fifth—or 8,629 out of the country’s 42,065 barangays—were “drug affected,” determined by the presence of at least one user, pusher, manufacturer, or other drug personality in the area. Based on PDEA’s 2014 arrest data, methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu tops the list of most abused illegal drugs, followed by marijuana and expensive party drugs like cocaine and ecstasy. The proliferation of illegal drugs and the extent of drug trade in the Philippines is also reflected in the rising volume of seizures of illegal drugs over the past few years amounting to: Php. 5.44 billion (2013), Php. 6.18 billion (2014), Php. 5.42 billion (2015), Php. 12.4 billion (2016). INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICTS The communist rebellion being waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), continues to pose serious peace and order problems in the country. The insurgency is one of Asia’s longest running conflicts and has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives since the 1960s. While the NPA is believed to have fewer than 4,000 soldiers now, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, it retains support among the extremely poor in the rural Philippines. There are persistent challenges to the three-decade old peace negotiations with the communists, but the Government will keep forging on until both parties agree to end the fighting. The Muslim separatist struggle being waged by non-state armed groups and extremist movements remains a major source of instability in resource-rich but impoverished parts of southern Philippines (or Mindanao). The on-and-off peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) — the largest and most organized of the myriad radical groups operating in Mindanao — made a promising breakthrough when finally a peace deal was signed in March 2014. A draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which forms the backbone of the 2014 peace accord, is pending approval by Philippine Congress. In line with the above, the Government, since the 1990s, has taken steps to decentralize power aimed at addressing the root causes of internal conflicts, namely: poverty and social injustice, widespread economic inequity, poor governance, abuse and control of political power, and marginalization of cultural communities which includes land security, natural resources, identity and human rights. The Local Government Code of 1991 sought to empower regions and local government units in a bid to more evenly distribute wealth and to extend the reach of essential government services to the broadest segments of the population. It is time to take these initial gains to the next higher level by exploring the full benefits of political devolution through a federal form of government. The proposal could spur long and vigorous 10|Page