Vice President Leni Robredo has noted some “flaws” in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs as she bared her report more than a month after she left as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee Against Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
The Vice President, who sat for 18 days with the body, said that while the creation of the ICAD was a step in the “right direction,” its potential was not however “maximized because of unequal participation by the member-agencies and lack of strategic leadership.”
“Silos remain, as evidenced by the lack of common targets and unified procedures. Some agencies have taken proactive roles, while others have operated largely on the level of compliance. Strategic leadership of the ICAD demands nothing less than direct Presidential attention in order to ensure the active involvement of all member-agencies,” she said.
Robredo said the government, through ICAD, also has no common and reliable baseline data on the number of drug users along with the absence of a uniform process for tracking all subsequent actions and interventions regarding those who have surrendered or were arrested.
“Various figures have been floated to account for the number of drug users in the country, from 1.8 million in 2016 to as high as 7 million to 8 million. Currently, the administration uses 4 million, which according to the PDEA [Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency] itself is based on a mere extrapolation. A more accurate, evidence-based number has yet to be resolved,” she said.
If the government is bent on using the 4 million as baseline data, Robredo added, then it would mean that the number of drug dependents has increased since 2016 despite its aggressive and costly campaign.
“Furthermore, if the PNP says that only 1.5 million have been accounted for, then where are the remaining 2.5 million? An evidence-based campaign should involve tracking not just the number of surrenders and arrests, but all subsequent actions and interventions for surrenderers and arrestees—whether they were successfully prosecuted, if such is warranted, and or properly,” she said.
The Vice President noted that the campaign had focused more on the “street-level” enforcement and relegated to the sidelines the other key factors such as “prevention, detention, prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration.”
Robredo said the “supply constriction” as part of the anti-illegal drugs campaign has been a “massive failure” since only a small portion of the estimated drug consumption in the country is being hauled.
She said that while the PDEA has no exact figure on the volume of drugs that is available and is circulating in the market, the head of the Drug Enforcement Group of the Philippine National Police reported that drug users are consuming 3 tons or 3,000 kilos of drugs on a weekly basis.
“This means that 156,000 kilos are being consumed yearly, but according to the report of the PDEA from January up to October 2019, they only seized about 1,344 kilos. This is just 1 percent of the total consumption,” the Vice President said.
Still based on the PDEA report, Robredo said the anti-drugs agency only hauled 1,053 kilos in 2017 and 785 kilos in 2018, which are way below 1 percent of the total consumption.
Robredo again called on the government to drop “Oplan Tokhang” and replace it with another campaign program.
“Tokhang, which has become synonymous with drug-related killings, must be abandoned in favor of a reinvigorated policy on anti-illegal drug enforcement that strongly promotes and ensures accountability and transparency,” she said.