VP drug report ‘publicity stunt with wrong figures’: PNP

FILE: Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge, Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Monday (Oct. 21, 2019). (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)

MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday described Vice President Leni Robredo’s recommendations on the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign as a publicity stunt which used wrong figures.

“With all due respect, I beg to disagree with the public relations bombshell of VP Robredo on the national anti-drug campaign as a ‘massive failure’. Whether her numbers are merely an estimate or the exact value, in any case, the figure derived is totally wrong,” PNP officer-in-charge, Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa said on Tuesday in a press briefing.

Gamboa was reacting to Robredo’s statement on her 18 days as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Council on Anti-Drugs (ICAD), saying the government’s war on drugs was a failure.

Gamboa cited the anti-drug-campaign should not be considered as a massive failure as it resulted in the dismantling of numerous drug dens and laboratories.

“These 14 demolished clandestine laboratories could not be the 1 percent cited by VP Robredo, but perhaps represent 100 percent success rate because there is no more local production of methamphetamine products in the country,” he said.

“It cannot be a massive failure when an estimated 5.1 tons of shabu, 2.2 tons of marijuana, 500 kgs of cocaine and 42,473 ecstacy pills, all estimated by DDB (Dangerous Drugs Board) to be worth PHP40.39-billion had been taken off the streets,” he added.

Since the start of the anti-illegal drug campaign in 2016 until the last quarter of 2019, Gamboa said a total of 151,601 anti-drug operations were conducted resulting in the arrest of 220,728 drug law violators among them, 8,185 high-value targets and the death of 5,552 drug personalities.

All these operations led to the clearing of 16,706 drug-affected barangays in various localities, he noted.

On the soft-hand approach to the drug problem, Gamboa also reported that 421,724 drug patients were treated under PNP-initiated and supported community centers recovery and wellness programs.

“But all these did not come without a price. Fifty-five police officers had to put their lives on the line in this battle against drugs. It would be the height of disrespect to say that they died a useless death because they failed to stop the drug problem,” he said.

“The drug problem is a clandestine operation that cannot be precisely audited by authorities rather it can only make estimates based on results of operations. Not even the US DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) was able to accurately quantify the amount of drugs produced and drug money amassed by Pablo Escobar and El Chapo Guzman without the actual baseline data,” he added.

Gamboa said Robredo’s short term of co-chairmanship with the ICAD was not enough for her to make estimates or assess the success or failure of the national campaign.

“This national crusade is (not) over. Much needs to be done along both supply and demand reduction strategies. The PNP operational thrust for 2020 will focus more on intensified intelligence-driven anti-illegal drugs operations particularly against upper and middle-level high-value targets engaged in trafficking of commercial quantity of illegal drugs 50 grams or more,” he noted.

Bereft of logic

While he is not aware on where the Vice President obtained data on the issue, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said Robredo’s remarks on the drug war were “bereft of logic.”

“That is her opinion… ako, kung sino man ‘yung gumawa ng materials niya (whoever did her materials), that’s actually bereft of logic. It’s like counting the chickens before the eggs are hatched. Para bang sinabi mo na may sampung baboy, manganganak araw-araw (It’s like you said there are 10 pigs that will give birth every day). Binilang mo na hanggang tatlong taon di mo alam yung sampung baboy namatay na agad pati anak namatay agad (You counted up to three years without knowing that the 10 pigs already died and so with their offspring). You cannot count and compound and compare it to the data reported by PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency),” he added.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra also took exception to Robredo’s claims.

“I don’t think so. The drug problem, admittedly, still bugs us. Much remains to be done but there have been palpable gains. This is especially reflected in the lower rate of street crimes,” Guevarra told reporters.

“The majority of our people continue to support the government’s drug campaign,” Guevarra said.

On Monday, Robredo claimed anew that the Duterte administration’s crackdown on illegal drugs is a “failure” because authorities have seized less than 1 percent of shabu since 2016.

Malacañang, however, dismissed Robredo’s findings and recommendations on the illegal drugs campaign as “a dud”, stressing that she was only trying to be “relevant”. (with reports from Benjamin Pulta/PNA)