A total of 2,446 kilos of shabu (crystal meth) were seized by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency during the one year that President Rodrigo Duterte has been in office.
PDEA Director Isidro Lapeña said that Duterte has been clear about his anger towards the illegal drugs problem of the country that has become a big problem specially in the marginalized sector of the society.
During the Mindanao Hour here, Lapeña said that the government is winning on its campaign against illegal drugs with a total of 19,068 drug personalities apprehended including 302 government workers.
“The total value of drugs seized in billion pesos, we have a total of 82.52 billion pesos compared to the 4.8 billion pesos of the previous year. This is a 283 percent increase,” he said.
He said that since the Duterte administration started the campaign against illegal drugs “ we had a drug affectation of 48 percent.”
As of June 30, a total of 3,677 barangays were cleared by the PDEA in the entire country. Most of the barangays were located at the National Capital Region.
Lapeña said that the drug campaign is not only limited to apprehending the drug personalities but also rehabilitating those barangays that were greatly affected by the illegal drugs.
“We wanted to be able to to accomplish is this figure will be translated into something that our people will feel, especially on the grassroots,” he said.
In order to address the different problems relating to illegal drugs, the Interagency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) four clusters. These are enforcement cluster, justice cluster, advocacy cluster and the rehabilitation cluster.
Lapeña said that the purpose of the ICAD and creating the four clusters is to unify all the efforts of the government and to implement it to the society.
Lapeña said that they will also involve the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs to address the drug problems in the MILF affected areas.
“We have to involve them to help us in our campaign against illegal drugs in those areas that are considered conflicted areas,” he said.
