DAVAO CITY, June 30 — The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has scored big in its all-out war against hard drugs since July 2016 when it hit the target of bringing down the number of users and affected areas in the country.
This was according to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Isidro Lapena, who reported the one year accomplishment of the Duterte’s campaign against hard drugs.
PDEA is the lead agency in the Duterte administration’s campaign against drugs Lapena said the government hit its target of bringing down the drug affectation by 30 per cent. He said this has reduced to 20,126 barangays from 42,036 when they took over. NCR has the highest affectation at 97 percent.
To this date, there are now 3,677 cleared barangays for the first year of the Duterte administration.
The relentless campaign against hard drugs also resulted to the decline in the number of users.
The President last year said there are an estimated four million users in the country.
According to Lapena, the number of users translates to PHP120-billion drug industry.
”If that is not reduced, then ‘yung PHP120 billion drug industry na ’yan will always be something that drug syndicates will always get into it,” he said during the Mindanao Hour at C3 Hotel here Friday.
The drug surrenderers totalled to 1,308,078.
The campaign since President Duterte took over, Lapena said the total number of operations conducted reached 64,397 which is 77 percent more than what the previous administration conducted with 36,466 operations.
The operations resulted to the arrest of 86,984 persons suspected involved in drugs. This is higher by 364 per cent compared to the previous administration which recorded on 18,766 drug personalities arrested. The drug operations left 3,171 drug suspects who were armed and fought with operatives.
But the government operatives also suffered losses, Lapena said there were 57 law enforcers killed-in-action and 150 wounded-in-action.
Lapena said there were government workers arrested numbering 302 or higher by 211 per cent compared to 97 in the year before the Duterte administration.
Government enforcers also successfully dismantled nine clandestine laboratories including two mega shabu laboratories. The government also destroyed 152 drug dens compared to 82 in the previous year.
Lapena reported that the total shabu seized in kilograms reached 2,446 kilograms compared to the 820 kilograms of the previous administration, which is 198 percent increase. This was worth PHP12.62 billion.
But the various drugs seized valued at PHP82.52 billion compared to P4.8 billion of the previous year. This is a 283 percent increase, Lapena said.
”Of course, these are the figures. But what we wanted to be able to accomplish is this figure will be translated into something that our people will feel, especially in the grassroots,” Lapena stressed.
He said government has shifted to barangay drug- clearing program because this is where the drug problem thrives.
”Dito ‘yung kalakaran ng droga. Ito ‘yung nakakaapekto sa mga mamamayan natin sa grassroots. This is the one that matters actually and so we shifted ‘yung aming effort on the drug,” Lapena said.
While government is successful in its campaign, Lapena said they will continue with its relentless and sustained campaign with the support of other agencies for the implementation of the strategies.
“We have unified, integrated, and synchronized other efforts on the anti-illegal drug campaign,” he said. This now involves the advocacy cluster to raise drug awareness in the grassroots level especially among the youth sector. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)#CHANGE365
