The Philippine President, Ms Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has declared all out war on drug trafficking, warning the Philippines could become "Asia's Colombia" if the drug menace was not dealt with.
The President's statement came as a Senate investigation continues into military allegations about links between senior Philippine police officers and drug lords, including Chinese triads operating mainly from Hong Kong.
Ms Arroyo said the threat of "narco-politics" was real, and she vowed to use all the powers of her office to prevent drug lords from having an influential role in Philippine politics.
"We already have the example of Colombia in Latin America, where the drug menace became so deeply embedded at one period that drug traffickers had succeeded in putting their people in positions of power and influence," she said.
Ms Arroyo added that drug addiction has become a scourge. "If we don't unite to end the drug menace, we could be Asia's Colombia ... This is a fight to the finish," she said.
The Senate inquiry was started by the armed forces intelligence leader, Col Victor Corpus, when he alleged last month that the ousted president, Mr Joseph Estrada, and his former national police chief, Mr Panfilo Lacson, had stashed hundreds of millions of dollars from organised crime in bank accounts overseas .
He brought before the Senate former undercover agents who testified to supposed links between several active senior police officers and the triads.
Both Mr Estrada and Mr Lacson have denied the allegations as part of a "black propaganda" aimed at destroying their reputations and have counter-sued Col Corpus for libel.
Testimony at the Senate showed the triads control the $5 billion a year narcotics trade in the Philippines and that between one and two tons of "ice", or methamphetamine hydrochloride, are consumed in the country or smuggled to Japan and Australia each month.
Mr Lacson, who is now a member of the Senate, has said the allegations against him are part of an administration campaign to blacken his name because of perceptions that he will run for president in elections in 2004.
He denies he has such ambitions.
Mr Estrada, toppled from power during a people revolt in January, is now in police custody while awaiting trial on a separate charge of economic plunder, which is punishable by life imprisonment or death.
The court has scheduled the start of the trial for October 1st.
In a statement issued this weekend Ms Arroyo said she had directed the Interior Department to draft a proposed law that would give more teeth to the country's Dangerous Drugs Act, which imposes the death penalty on people found carrying at least 200 grams of "ice".