Vice President Leni Robredo’s statement is SADDENING –- 18 days as ICAD co-chairman yet she has dismissed and ignored all of our government’s accomplishments and efforts for the past three years. I see her recommendations as a mere political attack against President Rodrigo Duterte.
As far as PDEA is concerned, the metrics for the success of the anti-illegal drug campaign is drug clearing, crime index, trust rating and operational accomplishments. To date, PDEA cleared 16,706 barangays of illegal drugs out of 33,881 or 49.13 percent.
The nationwide crime incidents declined from 11,860 in July 2016 to 5,000 in July 2019 as reported by the Philippine National Police. 82 percent of Filipinos are satisfied with the war against illegal drugs as revealed in the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey last September 2019. The trust rating of President Duterte, the author of the illegal drug war, is at its peak at 87 percent last December.
PDEA also seized a total of P45 billion worth of illegal drugs from 2016 to 2019 from the 162,987 operations with 225,284 arrest. Ibig sabihin tama ang ginagawa ng ating national government. Gusto ng tao ang ginagawa ng Pangulong Duterte sa program kontra illegal na droga. How can she claim it’s a failure? Yes, there are still shortcomings and flaws to the illegal drug programs particularly on rehabilitation but that is what ICAD is addressing now. As one working committee.
As for her statement that “kalat ang datos,” the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) has completed its survey and is now on the final phase of data gathering to once and for all update the data on drug users and pushers. We reported that to the VP. However, I told her that it is very difficult to gather the real data since nobody will admit that he/she is a user or pusher. That is the same situation in other countries.
