MANILA: A lawmaker on Wednesday said the anti-illegal drug campaign under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is more ‘effective and humane’ and has achieved more the desired results without resorting to extra-judicial killings.
Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said the shift from bloody to bloodless anti-illegal drug campaign has completely stopped abuses by law enforcers in the enforcement of the law.
‘Ang kampanya laban sa droga nuong nakalipas na panahon ay parang ‘pitik bulag’ na naglikha ng maraming mga naulila na pamilya, na ang mga anak o kampag-anak na suspect sa droga ay di ipinasailalim sa batas at hustisya (The campaign against [illegal] drugs in the past is like a ‘blind flick’ that created many orphaned families, whose child or drugs suspect kins were not given due process),’ he said.
Official records, he added, showed a total of 6,229 drug personalities were killed via extrajudicial killings (EJKs) as of March 22 while
human rights group estimated there were more than 20,000 civilians killed during the anti-illegal drug campaign of the past administration.
In 2022, then outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte urged his successor President Marcos to continue the war on drugs in ‘his own way’.
President Marcos has instead declared to focus more on prevention and rehabilitation, saying ‘extermination was never one of them.’
During his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, President Marcos clearly reiterated his policy that he ‘would adhere and continue to adhere to the established aegis of anti-illegal drug policy and that extermination was never one of them.’
Barbers lauded the current bloodless anti-drug campaign, with law enforcers conducting 71,500 operations, seized PHP44 billion worth of illegal drugs, and the arrest of 97,000 drug personalities, including 6,000 high-value targets.
The current anti-drug campaign, as disclosed by the President during SONA, has also resulted in the freezing of assets of suspe
cted bigtime drug traffickers worth more than PHP500 million and with the conviction rate of 79 percent against those charged in court for illegal drugs.
‘On our part at the Lower House, our panel continues, and still continuing to amend Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act, to refine further and identify its flaws and loopholes, to effectively carry out the government’s anti-drug campaign, particularly against protectors, coddlers and financiers,’ Barbers said.
While the government focuses on prevention and rehabilitation against drug suspects, Barbers urged concerned anti-illegal drug authorities to also focus more on ‘supply reduction’ than ‘demand reduction’.
In its 2010 report, the US International Narcotics Control Strategy estimated the illegal drug trade in the Philippines at around USD6.4 billion to USD8.4 billion annually.
Considering that the report was made 14 years ago, one cannot imagine how much and how extensive the illegal drugs business in the country has become in the succeeding
years, Barbers said.
Source: Philippines News Agency
