‘PDEA lacks manpower for drug war’

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which is now leading the anti-drug war, lacks the manpower to do the job.

“With regard to drugs, I really do not know if the campaign worsened or improved,” the President said during a recent

visit to wounded soldiers at the Army General Hospital in Taguig.

“But if I think that it worsened because PDEA lacks personnel – they have 2,000 for the entire nation – I will bring back (the drug war) to the police,” he said.

Duterte transferred the lead role in the crackdown on illegal drugs to PDEA following public outcry over the death of two teenage suspects at the hands of Caloocan policemen last August.

The policemen claimed that Kian delos Santos, 17, was a drug runner who violently resisted arrest but witnesses said the teenager was executed.

Carl Arnaiz, 19, was reportedly shot after robbing taxi driver Tomas Bagcal, who later disowned the affidavits attributed to him.

PDEA data showed that 117,268 drug personalities were arrested and 78,619 anti-drug operations were conducted from July to November this year.

A total of 2,525.77 kilos of shabu or methamphetamine worth P18.9 billion were seized in the same period. The agency has also declared 4,295 barangays drug-cleared since July.

House minority leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez supported yesterday the proposed return of the administration’s anti-drug war to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“I believe that the PDEA is doing its best to eradicate illegal drugs. However, if the problem worsens and the President decides to tap the PNP again, I will support that,” Suarez said.

He said the illegal drug trade “is a P700billion industry whose resources cannot be matched even by the PNP.”

Suarez, an ally of former president and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, blamed the Aquino administration for the growth of the illegal drug trade.

“In 2012, the UN released a world drug report, wherein the Philippines recorded the highest rate of shabu use in East Asia. The Aquino administration seemed to have neglected this report as the drug problem worsened during its six-year term,” he said.

He said the illegal drug trade would not have flourished “if not for the cooperation with drug syndicates of the police and local officials.”

He pointed out that drug-related crimes like rape and homicide “continue to proliferate.”