If she wins president in 2022, Vice President Leni Robredo said the government’s drug war will remain intensified but in “a different way.”
Robredo, who co-chaired the Inter-Agency Committee Against Illegal Drugs (ICAD) for 19 days in November 2019, said ICAD should be led by Dangerous Drugs Board, which is a policy-making body, and not the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
After Robredo was fired, she released a report which stated that law enforcement was only able to seize 1% of illegal drug shipment in the country based on government records.
“We cannot go on enforcement alone because the past five years, sobrang daming namatay [so many people had died]. The question is, nawala ba ang droga? Hindi [Was illegal drugs eradicated? No],” she said Friday.
“If DDB will chair ICAD, it won’t perform its role by going on kill, kill, kill. The plan will be comprehensive, heavy on prevention and rehabilitation,” she added.
Based on government records, some 7,000 people have been killed during the police’s anti-drug operations since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed power in 2016.
Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) pre-trial chamber found reasonable grounds to probe the Duterte administration for alleged crimes against humanity due to alleged systematic killing of citizens in pursuit of a state policy of anti-drug war.
Duterte, despite saying the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, earlier said he would prepare his defense on possible indictment by the international body after he steps down from office on June 30, 2022. —KBK, GMA News
