The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) aim to tap the assistance of local government units in clearing communities of the drug menace pursuant to the call of President Marcos to go after small-scale drug dealers.
“The national and local elections are just over. We have newly elected mayors, councilors. We are going to capacitate them so that they understand that our fight against drugs should not only be viewed from a law enforcement perspective. We need the cooperation of all government agencies, especially our community,” PNP spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said in an interview on national television.
“There is wisdom behind this pronouncement by our President. As he mentioned that small-time drug peddlers also need to be targeted, PDEA will follow that, along with other law enforcement agencies,” PDEA spokesman Joseph Frederick Calulut said.
The projected intensified drug campaign would be in line with the presidential directive to weed out community-based drug dealers without violating due process.
“So now, in the same vein, part of the lesson of this election, let’s go back to the grassroots level. If people are worried, saying, bring (drugs) back here, then let’s continue with the big drug busts,” Marcos said.
“Let’s continue… We will imprison those involved in drugs. But let’s look at the smaller offenders first,” he added.
Fajardo also said that they will participate in town hall meetings to enlighten local government officials on the state of the drug problem in their respective communities.
According to Fajardo, they would also orient police personnel on how to properly approach drug users and pushers, as well as on how to detect drug facilities and laboratories within their areas of jurisdiction.
“Another thing we want to promote is the passing of barangay ordinances. Maybe for others, this is a small thing. We want, even at the barangay level, they can pass anti-illegal drugs initiatives and programs, even the simple ones, the curfew hours,” she added.
Fajardo explained that barangay officials know their residents better, so they should be alert when it comes to what was happening in their communities.
Fajardo also disclosed that the PNP has confiscated a total of P43.3 billion worth of illegal narcotics during the first three years of the Marcos administration.
This was three times higher than the P14.3 billion worth of drugs seized during the first half of the Duterte administration’s highly controversial war on drugs.
Calulut added that they have started to move against small-scale drug dealers, and was expected to release data in the coming days.
He also emphasized that the PDEA has confiscated a larger volume and value of illegal drugs now as compared to the past administration.
“This time, PDEA is also concentrating on the big time drug syndicates because one of the means to curb the spread of illegal drugs in the country is what is called the supply reduction strategy,” Calulut explained.
“That’s why we focused on concerted efforts with other law enforcement agencies and then we intensified intelligence operations, [our confiscations] became large,” he said.
