Philippine Senator Manny Pacquiao filed a measure this week seeking to establish a Department of Homeland Security to protect the country’s borders against terrorists and other transnational crimes.
The bill, which was released to the media on Wednesday, July 3, said the government agency would “prevent terrorist attacks within, and the occurrence of transnational crimes across the borders of, the Republic of the Philippines, especially the cross-border trafficking of illegal drugs.”
Pacquiao underscored the effects of terrorism and other transnational crimes in the Philippines like how they result in loss of lives that destroy families as well as how they undermine the government’s efforts to develop the economy and maintain peace and order in the country.
“International terrorists and the perpetrators of transnational crimes and especially of the cross-border trafficking of prohibited drugs, reportedly look for countries where border authorities are not well-supported or strengthened by their governments to stop them,” Pacquiao said.
According to the copy of the bill, there will be an Office for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection and the Office of Border Security under the Department of Homeland Security.
Pacquiao, who is currently in Los Angeles training for his July 20 fight, has filed a number of bills, including one to restore the death penalty for major drug trafficking crimes.
