PHILIPPINE Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino defended on Sunday, October 27, the government’s crackdown in illegal drugs following the remark made by Vice President Leni Robredo that it was a failure and should already be stopped.
“Sa amin sa PDEA, hindi namin kino-consider itong isang failure, in fact, kino-consider namin itong isang solution. Makikita naman majority of the Filipino ay satisfied sa war on drugs ng gobyerno,” he said.
Just like the Philippine National Police (PNP), Aquino noted the satisfaction rating of the drug war since it started in 2016 based on the surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
He also noted the recovery of P36 billion worth of illegal drugs, arrest of nearly 200,000 drug suspects and the declaration of drug-free status in at least 15,000 barangays since 2016, when President Rodrigo Duterte took office and launched the campaign.
“Kapag itinigil ang kampanya laban sa iligal na droga, mamamayagpag na naman lahat ng mga drug lords, lahat ng mga drug pusher, mga user natin. Sayang naman yung pinasimulan natin. Ang laki na ng accomplishments natin, bakit ngayon pa ihihinto?” Aquino said.
“Nitong first eight months (of 2019), naka P7.6 billion na tayo ng illegal drugs. Karamihan ng nahuli natin ay foreigners. Kapag nakakuha tayo ng mga international drug syndicate, we are considering them as drug lords already. Hindi lang nakikita ng taongbayan natin kung sino yung nahuhuli natin,” he added.
Robredo earlier said the campaign against illegal drugs should be stopped as it is a failure because it only targeted the poor rather than big drug networks.
Aquino said there are no drug lords in the country as huge as Mexico’s El Chapo and Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, “if they were expecting to arrest such huge fish.” (SunStar Philippines)