Drug war a massive failure – Robredo
Credit to Author: Divina Nova Joy Dela Cruz| Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2020 16:20:31 +0000
Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo declared Monday the government’s war on drugs a failure, saying it hardly made a dent in the shabu supply chain despite the thousands of drug personalities that were killed by authorities.
Robredo’s assessment was contained in her report summing up her 18-day stint as co-chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
She said only 1 percent of the estimated consumption of illegal drugs had been seized in the past three-and-a-half years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drugs crusade.
Robredo released the report after deferring it a couple of times last December, the first time to give way to the Southeast Asian Games and then to a devastating quake in Davao Del Sur.
She had vowed to release her “discoveries” and recommendations on the drug war after she was fired by Duterte as ICAD co-chairman on November 24. The vice president said she submitted a copy of the 40-page report to Malacañang.
“One percent. Just think: if this were an exam, the government’s score would be 1 over 100,” Robredo said in a news briefing.
The report showed that “of the estimated 156,000 kilograms (kg) of shabu consumption in a year, only 1,053.91 kg or 0.68 percent was seized in 2017, 785.31 kg or 0.50 percent in 2018, and 1,344.87 kg or 0.86 percent from January to October 2019,” she reported.
She said she drew the data on the seized shabu from information shared with her by the enforcement cluster, while the annual estimated consumption was computed based on the Philippine National Police (PNP) Drug Enforcement Group of 3,000 kg per week multiplied by 52 weeks in a year.
Robredo said the anti-drug campaign focused on going after street-level drug dealers and users, not on the large-scale sources of illegal drugs.
“It really is a failure because the war against illegal drugs has many aspects. It has many aspects, as we can see, like what I said in the report, the focus has been on split-level enforcement, only in the pursuit of small-time pushers and users and even if this will be done every day if there is no supply constriction, no pursuit of big-time suppliers, the problem will not end,” she said.
Change strategy
Robredo, a staunch critic of extrajudicial killings even before her stint at ICAD, said the anti-narcotics effort, which had been named “Oplan Tokhang,” needed to be retooled.
“From this data, we can see that there is a need to change the strategy. This includes ending Tokhang and to come up with a new solution that has a clear objective and operational guidelines to avoid abuse of some in this campaign,” Robredo said.
“Instead of pursuing those pushers on the streets, there is a need to go after big drug lords. They are the real enemy, not the ordinary people,” she added.
Ranking high-value targets (HVTs) should not be based on a person’s popularity but on his role in the proliferation of drugs in the country, she said. Robredo said she had been “deprived” of the information on HVTs and refused to look at the list that was about to be shared with her until President Rodrigo Duterte outlined her function and limits as ICAD co-chairman.
She admitted some sources with information approached her but she did not include them in the report since her office could not confirm their credibility.
For a more comprehensive approach to the drug war, Robredo suggested transferring the leadership of ICAD to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB).
She said the DDB had the responsibility and mandate to create policies and can harmonize the programs involving justice, advocacy, rehabilitation and reintegration.
She called on Duterte to oversee every aspect of the drug campaign, saying the ICAD needs his support in creating the National Anti-Illegal Drug Task Force.
“This group was included in the executive order that created ICAD but until now, after more than two years, the President has not acted on it,” Robredo said.
She also recommended spreading out the budget evenly among the agencies under ICAD.
As it was, the lion’s share of the budget went to law enforcement agencies such as the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the PNP, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Coast Guard. Rehabilitation, which was handled by the Department of Health and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, received P3.65 billion in 2017, P0.97 billion in 2018, and P1.24 billion in 2019.
The vice president also stressed the need for a unified data of surrenderers and other drug personalities to effectively track their rehabilitation.
She said she released the report not to criticize but to help the anti-drug campaign.
She said she would continue to help in the drug war in her capacity as vice president through community-based rehabilitation.
In the House of Representatives, the Makabayan bloc supported Robredo’s report.
Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Cullamat said the low volume of confiscated drugs only proved that the war on drugs was a fake and was only being used by “ninja cops” to earn.
The Gabriela Women’s Party said Robredo’s findings only proved that Oplan Tokhang led to the deaths of thousands coming mostly from poor communities.