Duterte’s 3-year drug war has seized just 1 per cent of Philippines’ crystal meth: Robredo
- Vice-President brands war on drugs a costly failure after report based on government’s own data
- Until now, the government has been vague about the drug’s presence in the country
“Just think,” she concluded, “if this were an exam, the government score would be one out of 100.”
The presidential palace was quick to respond, with spokesman Salvador Panelo calling her report “a dud”.
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“There is nothing new in what she said [and] it doesn’t mean it’s a failure even if it’s just one per cent,” Panelo argued.
“I think the failure is her sitting in ICAD,” he added, referring to Duterte’s appointment of Robredo as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs.
CRYSTAL CLEAR
Robredo’s figures are eye-catching as the Duterte administration has tended to be vague about the amount of crystal meth being smuggled into the country and sold in the streets.
Last November, Philippine National Police Colonel Romeo Caramat Jnr, director of the PNP-Drug Enforcement Group, told a news conference that a “modest estimate” was that “if we have three million users in our country, the minimum demand of drugs is three tonnes per week”.
Robredo, an economist and lawyer, appears to have used this figure as a basis to claim 156 tonnes of crystal meth was being consumed in the country every year.
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She also said police had estimated there was 1.3 trillion pesos worth of the drug circulating yearly in the Philippines, but official data showed only 1.4 billion pesos worth of drug seizures.
“It is very, very clear that based on official data, despite all the deaths of Filipinos and all that money spent, the confiscated supply and drug money [was about] one per cent,” she said. “It’s really a failure.”
She urged the government to abandon door-to-door raids of private homes to flush out drug users and small drug dealers, saying these had resulted in 248 deaths monthly from July 2016 to last October.