‘Shabu haul shows success of bloodless drug war’
President Ferdinand r. marcos Jr. said the recent seizure of high-quality methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu worth p13.3 billion—the biggest drug haul in a single local drug bust operation—shows the success of his administration’s “bloodless” drug war.
The chief executive made the remark during his inspection last tuesday of 1.8 tons of the illegal drug, which was confiscated at Barangay pinagkrusan in alitagtag, Batangas.
“I would also point out that this is the biggest shipment of shabu, which we seized, but not one person died, was shot or hurt. We just did the operation carefully. that for me is the right approach in a drug war,” marcos said partly in Filipino during a press briefing.
“So it is the most successful approach to the drug war so far. So why will we change it? We won’t change it. We will continue to do what we are doing,” he added.
Police Captain Luis De Luna led the operation, which resulted in the confiscation of the shabu shipment from a van after it was flagged down at a checkpoint last monday.
The driver of the van, which was not identified due to an ongoing investigation, was arrested by the police and charged for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs act of 2002.
Following the successful operation, De Luna was promoted to the next higher rank of major by Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin C. abalos Jr.
Marcos said the inventory of seized drugs is ongoing and the police are now tracking its source.
“One thing is clear, this [illegal drugs shipment] was imported. It came from outside of the philippines. the route where it came from is now under study and investigation,” he said.
He said the government coordinating with other countries and international intelligence and drug agencies to stop such cross-border crime.
“This record-setting p13.3-billion drug haul was concrete proof that the government’s policy of bloodless and preventive-centered campaign against illegal drugs is on the right track,” abalos said.
He also expressed relief that the illegal substance was seized before it reached the hands of illegal drugs traders.
‘No silver bullet’
The president said his administration will continue to intensify its campaign against drug trafficking and prosecure the people behind such activities. He added that there is no “silver bullet” for solving the drug problem.
“There’s no other solution but to keep doing this. to make it hard for them to bring drugs to the philippines so they will just do [their operations to] another location instead. that’s the situation that we are hoping to achieve,” marcos said.
“We just keep operating and keep gathering intelligence. that’s the key to bringing down the activities of the drug syndicates here in the philippines,” he added.
From July 2002 to December 2023, authorities conducted 36,803 anti-illegal drug operations resulting in the arrest of 49,700 drug suspects, of which 3,284 are considered high value targets.
This has led to the filing of 47,516 illegal drug charges of which 28,302 were resolved.
The government said 28,243 or 67.24 percent of barangays nationwide will declared as “drug-cleared” and 314,917 drug dependents will be enrolled in Community-based Drug rehabilitation program.
Marcos has consistently said his administration’s campaign against illegal drugs is “rehabilitation-focused,” which was a departure from the aggressive approach enforced by authorities during the time of former president rodrigo r. Duterte.
Duterte is facing an investigation from the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to killings of at least 6,000 people from the operations led by the philippine national police (pnp) during his presidency.