Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director-General Aaron Aquino yesterday belied Vice President Leni Robredo’s claim that the country’s anti-drug war is a failure.
Robredo has urged the Duterte administration to stop its war on drugs due to its dismal failure.
Aquino disagreed with Robredo’s claim.
He detailed the accomplishments of the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign, emphasizing that it received high satisfaction rating as evidenced in a survey. A 2019 second quarter survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations noted the government’s war on drugs has remained excellent among Filipinos.
Aquino noted that PDEA does not consider the anti-illegal drugs drive as a failure and instead sees it as a solution as a great majority of Filipinos are satisfied with the government’s anti-narcotics campaign.
He said the anti-illegal drugs campaign resulted in the confiscation of some P36-billion worth of illegal drugs, arrest of almost 200,000 suspects, and drug-free status of 15,000 barangays in the two years and four months of its conduct.
He insisted that stopping the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign is not a viable option since it will only cause the reemergence of more drug lords, drug pushers, and drug users.
Robredo insisted the anti-drug campaign targeted mostly the poor, rather than big drug syndicates.
Aquino debunked Robredo’s statement, saying they and other anti-narcotics groups have arrested some high-value targets, among them members of international drug syndicates.
He said that in the first eight months of 2019, PDEA seized an estimated P7.6-billion worth of illegal drugs and arrested mostly foreign drug personalities. (Chito Chavez)
