A 40-page report of Vice President Leni Robredo from her short stint as drug czar detailed how President Duterte’s drug war failed to combat illegal drugs in the country.
In her report as co-chair of the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), Robredo said the “supply constriction, as an aspect of the overall strategy against illegal drugs, has been a massive failure.”
“As the conduct of the anti-illegal drug campaign fixated on street-level operations, the other aspects of enforcement were not given equal attention, such as the arrest of high-value targets, disruption of major supply chains, and dismantling of operations of major drug laboratories,” she said.
Robredo finally made public her report that contains her findings and recommendations during a press briefing at the Quezon City Reception Office, where she holds office.
She had served as ICAD co-chair for 19 days in November 2019 until she was sacked by Duterte from her post for her supposed incompetence to handle the job.
Citing official data from member agencies of the anti-drug body, Robredo noted less than one percent of “shabu,” or methamphetamine hydrochloride, had been seized by authorities in the past three years under the Duterte administration.
Based on the Philippine National Police’s records, according to Robredo, there had been three kilos of shabu worth P25 billion used by drug addicts per week.
A total of 1,344 kilos of shabu had been seized by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) from January to October 2019.
“Kung exam ito, ang magiging score ng pamahalaan ay 1 over 100,” she said during the presentation of the report. (Raymund Antonio)
