Director General Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), yesterday declared that they have already accomplished 70 percent of their target in the campaign against illegal drugs since July.
From the 1.8 million suspected pushers and users benchmark, Dela Rosa said they have accounted a total of 1.049 million suspected drug pushers and users who have either surrendered, arrested or killed.
“The PNP is on a continuous campaign against criminal gangs and personalities… with more focus on the arrest and account of High Value Target personalities involved in illegal drugs,” said Dela Rosa.
But a computation of the data released by the PNP showed irreconcilable figures that dispute the 70 percent accomplishment target of the PNP.
Based on the latest data of the regular accomplishments being sent to the media by the PNP- Public Information Office, a total of 983,232 suspected pushers and users surrendered to the police while a total of 42,543 were arrested both from July to December 27 this year.
On the other hand, a total of 2,157 were killed in police operations.
If summed up, the figure would only have 1,027,932 arrested, surrendered or killed suspected drug pushers – or only 57 percent accomplishment target.
A separate data from the Directorate for Operations (DO) released by the PNP-Public Information Office have a bigger figure of 1,326,472 suspected drug pushers and users accounted from July 1 to Dec. 22.
“Included in the 70 percent are the total of 1,049,302 individuals who have surrendered under Oplan Tokhang; 45,041 who were arrested; 2,295 drug suspects who were killed during police operations; 69,647 drug offenders in jails; 54 under counselling with DSWD; and 147,756 drug personalities arrested or killed in 2010 to June 30, 2016,” it reads.
Using the figure, it would have been a 74 percent accomplishment target for the anti-drugs war dubbed as Project Double Barrel Alpha.
The problem, however, is that the figure released by the DO is different from the daily data being sent by the PNP to the media for the Project Double Barrel.
It also included a figure which is not part of the Project Double Barrel.
The Project Double Barrel, later upgraded to Project Double Barrel Alpha, was launched on July 1this year or the day of the assumption of office of Dela Rosa.
But the DO figure that justified the 70 percent accomplishment target also includes a total of 147,756 “drug personalities arrested or killed from 2010 to June 30 2016 — which is clearly under the past administration.
Sought for comment, PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos said he would ask the DO to explain. But as of press time yesterday, there was no clarification made both from the DO and the PIO.
The figure of fatalities does not include the more or less 3,000 victims of extra-judicial killings although Dela Rosa conceded that not all of them are drug-related.
Among those killed by suspected vigilante groups are the Odicta couple tagged as the main supplier of shabu in Iloilo.
The 70 percent success rate, according to Dela Rosa, was achieved within the six-month deadline promised by President Duterte to eliminate the drug problems in the country.
The President had earlier asked for six-month extension.
Dela Rosaexplained that their 1.8 million drug users and pushers benchmark does not run counter on the figure of Duterte who said that there are some three to four million drug addicts in the country.
“We are no disputing the President when he said three to four million. What we used as basis was the 2010 data of the Dangerous Drugs Board which said there were 1.8 million,” said dela Rosa. (AARON RECUENCO)