The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) maintained that it has used a more scientific survey method that will serve as the baseline data on the anti-narcotics drive of the government.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino also chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) said the DBB’s national survey might come out this year.
Earlier, Vice-President Leni Robredo during her 18-day stint as ICAD co-chairman had asked for the number of drug users, pushers, surrenderers, arrested individuals, court cases, and those undergoing rehabilitation to compare with current numbers and measure the drug war’s progress.
But Aquino said at present there has been no clear baseline data on the drug war.
President Duterte on March 2019 said that there are more or less 7 million drug users in the country which is two folds of the estimate of between 3 to 4 million users in 2016.
PDEA records revealed that from July 2016 to November 2019 some 151,601 anti-illegal drug operations have been conducted where 220,728 suspects were arrested and 5,552 persons killed.
During the same period, the same data revealed that a total of 2,799 children involved in illegal drug activities were rescued during anti-drug operations.
The PDEA record also disclosed that some 8,185 high-value targets (HVTs) have also been arrested from July 2016 to November 2019.
Aquino explained that HVTs include local and international drug groups.
He said there are currently around 186 local drug groups in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the biggest international drug group operating in the country is China’s Dragon Wu Syndicate.
“The ICAD is working in coordination with the narcotics board of China to neutralize and arrest all members of the syndicate,’’ Aquino concluded. (Chito Chavez)
