Remarks of U.S. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone
During USDA Turnover of Clandestine Lab Gear to PDEA
U.S. Embassy Seafront Compound, January 28, 2005

Thank you very much. Mr. Director General, Deputy, brave men and women of the PDEA. It’s a privilege to be with you today. Many of you have heard me say before what the United States is about. What is our mission with the Philippines? Why do we have a big Embassy here with a U.S. DEA representative? Really -- four words is our slogan. The number one word is ‘Excellence.’ We want to be the best American Embassy in the world. But the three other words are our three business lines: ‘Security,’ ‘Prosperity,’ and ‘Service.’ Strengthening all three of those things on behalf of the Filipino and American peoples.

In security, law enforcement is a big part of our security picture. And within law enforcement, what we’re doing against narco-criminals is among the most important things we’re doing together for the coming generation of Filipinos and Americans, because young people are the most immediate victims, and young people are the future of the country. If you don’t succeed, your country and my country, too, are in just a great a peril -- perhaps even a greater peril than from terrorism, or foreign armies or any other peril that our countries face together. So you really are on the front lines. You are heroes, you’re not paid enough, you’re not recognized enough, you don’t have all the equipment and training you need -- I can say the same about the anti-narcotics and law enforcement people in my own country. Around the world, law enforcement people are not given enough recognition for the vital service that you render to your country. And because we are allies, we speak of our countries together.

So what we’re doing today is a little enough recognition – it’s a contribution – we try to contribute to our partnership against narco-criminals in several ways, as Tim has just touched on, and as the DG has touched on. One of them is training, which is very important. You need to have the best training that can be brought to bear. Another of course, is equipment – as you see here. Some of it is basic stuff, but it’s the kind of equipment that we hope will help reduce the risks that you face – and Lieutenant, was it you – who inspired Tim, when he saw the risk you were running in going into a dangerous laboratory basically unprotected? So we hope now, when you do your work you’ll be protected. You will always face risks but you are too precious, to face any more risks than you must face, in gathering the evidence to put these bad people behind bars. So we’re glad to contribute the equipment.

Other ways we contribute are with intelligence. We’ve been talking about that in an anti-terrorism context. We certainly will always provide you everything we can find out globally against bad people who are trying to run drugs into your country from outside. As a global power, it’s almost a unique function of the United States around the world. We’re not only a global power, we are a learning organization. We learn lessons from the Philippines, we learn lessons from Thailand, we learn lessons from Turkey -- we learn lessons from all our allies and other countries where we work with law enforcement against narco-traffickers. We see their latest tricks. Because they’re smart people, they keep developing their ways of moving money, moving guns, moving people, moving narcotics. We keep finding their ways of evading the law, international and national laws, and we keep finding the best practices of law enforcement officers like you, the worldwide brotherhood and sisterhood of law enforcement around the world. We know about that because we have people like Tim Teal in the key countries where narcotics are a problem. So we bring all that to bear and we are very proud to serve with you.

Tim mentioned one major exercise that we’ve got going today. This is a big, new initiative. It comes precisely from the lessons we have learned around the world and in our own country. We learned that to defeat the narco-traffickers, you can’t leave it to your national drug enforcement agency alone. It is not just a law enforcement operation even on the interdiction side, to say nothing from the treatment side. It is also something where the military has a role to play outside your borders in keeping the narco-traffickers out. We had to find a way within our country of breaking down bureaucratic barriers to cooperation between our DEA, our other law enforcement agencies like our coast guard, and our military. We had to break through firewalls that protect the American people against military operations at home, and so forth. We’ve done that and we’ve established an inter-agency task force. We spoke about that with the Director General before in the years past, and he brought it to President Arroyo. We spoke with President Arroyo, and she agreed with the Director General that in the Philippines, too, we need to develop a stronger team effort against narco-traffickers. And so, two years ago now, or a year and a half ago, we did the first Baker-Piston exercise over at Sangley Point and the President was kind enough to be with us that day and kick it off. It was very successful. We’ve done more in joint -- meaning U.S.-Filipino; inter-agency -- meaning civilian-military exercises; and all of that as the background to what we are doing now to the Baker-Piston exercise 2005-1 in Davao. And later on, in this coming month, that exercise will conclude and I hope to go down, and I hope the Director General will be able to be there and we’ll celebrate again yet another showcase of our cooperation together.

For the people in the media -- you know you can photograph things like high-tech protective gas masks and these space suits that will protect our people in going into poisonous environments. Some things you can photograph, like that. When we do an exercise together, as we’ll do in Davao, you can take pictures of people getting on and off helicopters or rubber, inflatable boats, and things like that. What you can’t take pictures of though, is the organization, the management, the everyday good governance internally, the everyday support of the people who are on the front lines against narco-terrorism. You cannot take a photograph of the courage of the people of PDEA. Their determination, their work late at night and early in the morning, and on weekends, and on holidays, against the narco-traffickers. That doesn’t show so well. But I want people to know that the United States of America sees it. We know what you’re doing. Our DEA works hand in glove with you. We appreciate what you do. We think of you as heroes, we’re proud to work with you. This is a small enough way of showing our support. We hope it will sustain your determination and your motivation because we know it’s not going to come in your pay packets. It comes from service to your country- that keeps you going. So congratulations, I salute you all. Thank you for your great work. We’re proud to serve with you. Maraming salamat, mabuhay!

Q & A Transcript from DEA-PDEA Turnover Ceremony, January 28, 2005,
US Embassy Seafront Compound

Q: Good morning, Sir. I’m Joseph from GMA 7. For Director Avenido -- Sir, how big a problem are the drug syndicates in our country? And how is this equipment going to help in our operations against them?

DIRECTOR GENERAL AVENIDO: In the year 2003, we discovered and dismantled eleven big shabu laboratories. Last year, we also discovered and dismantled the same number of big shabu laboratories.

As we said earlier, these laboratories are not very safe the first time that a person enters an establishment. The personnel going into these laboratories should be protected either from the fumes coming from the chemicals or from the danger of explosion, and therefore we should need equipment for them. Unfortunately, in these past discoveries, we had not yet the equipment needed, and the equipment that we are receiving today would be of great help.

In fact, this would be a warning to the members of the media because many of you would like to enter the shabu laboratories even ahead of the law enforcement personnel. We are also concerned over your safety but I’m sorry not all of us can receive equipment like this. So, maybe you could just go behind us when we enter the establishments. So, that’s one major purpose of having this equipment with us. As to the effect on our overall anti-drug campaign, if we have this equipment, the more that our personnel will have the motivation, as cited by his Excellency the Ambassador, to go after establishments such as the big shabu laboratories – the motivation to look for them, motivation to enter the premises this time with confidence, and as we know the sources of drugs in our country come not only from importations of finished products but also because of local manufacturing and if we can prevent the manufacture of drugs here and with the assistance of our foreign counterparts, from also the coming in of finished products from abroad, then we have an assurance that our drug problem here can be properly addressed.

Q: Hazel Recheta, ABC-Channel 5. Ambassador Ricciardone, are you satisfied with the way the Philippines is handling its drug problem, or perhaps, you think there is a need to improve on this?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: We’re allies, and I don’t think either of us will be satisfied until we finally defeat this problem, and I don’t think any chief of any drug enforcement administration anywhere in the world is ever satisfied or there wouldn’t be a point in being the chief. You can never satisfy anyone who is waging this war. That said, I’m satisfied that our two drug enforcement agencies have people who are motivated, determined, capable, professional and going all out heart and soul for these bad guys. So, if that’s your question, you bet, we’re delighted to be cooperating with the Philippines’ DEA.

Transcript of U.S. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone’s Ambush Interview at
the Seafront Club, January 28, 2005

Q: (Hazel Recheta, Channel 5) Sir, some Filipino politicians are very apprehensive about the presence of U.S. soldiers here because they’re thinking they’re not here for some training, but actually they are spies. Would you comment on that, Sir?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Yes. You didn’t have the microphone on. The question is about Filipino politicians concerned about the presence of American soldiers here. You know, I see different things in the headlines. I never know how accurately people are quoted. I know sometimes -- I have to say, with apologies -- I’m not accurately quoted. We have on our website 45 pages of transcript on the discussion we had about how the United States is assisting the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and I suggest people might want to read what I actually said, not what I was said to have said. But if anyone here, a politician, a professor, anyone at all has a question about what we’re doing, in specific terms, we’re glad to help. And if your government decides, if ever what we’re doing is not helpful, we won’t do it.

I think the question specifically was with respect to our cooperation going on now in the South, the Southcom. We are at the headquarters level helping with organization, training, computerization, and what I called in my FOCAP interview “ops-intel fusion.” That does not mean spying. It does not mean the collection of intelligence. Those are not/not American intelligence officers. So, anyone who is putting that interpretation on it didn’t read what I actually said in that interview. What “ops-intel fusion” means is you take all the different sources of information from all around the world, even things that appear in the news media, and you analyze it rigorously to make sure you get the garbage out, separate the rumor from the fact, bring to bear all this information very quickly and put it at the disposal of commanders so they can send their men -- not on a rabbit hunt like Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny -- but on something that is well informed, and that does not waste the time of soldiers, and doesn’t put them at particular risk. That’s what “ops-intel fusion” means -- treat your soldiers as something very valuable, and not to be wasted. Treat your soldiers as people that ought to go off on missions that are well-informed by ground truth. That’s what that means.

Q: So, their apprehensions are misplaced?

A: I really don’t know if they are apprehensive. You would have to ask individual politicians if this keeps them awake at night. I rather doubt it, to be honest. I think your soldiers and your commanders are delighted with what we’re doing, from what they tell us. If they weren’t, they’d ask us to leave, and we would leave in a split second, because American soldiers these days are very busy helping victims of tsunamis. They’re very busy helping protect Iraqis as they go to the polls. They’re very busy in Afghanistan, helping the government go after drug lords, chasing Osama bin Laden. Our soldiers have very important things to do. There is nothing more important than supporting our Filipino ally. But if anyone in the Philippines thinks that supporting your soldiers is not important or we shouldn’t do it, well, they should say so. And if they persuade your government, then that’s what your government policy ought to be, we’re allies and we respect that.

Q. Thank you.

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