PDEA chief: PH could be the first country to win drug war

Over two years after the government declared the war against illegal drugs, the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) expressed confidence that the country could be the first in the world to win the war against the illegal trade.

Director General Aaron Aquino said this on Thursday as he revealed that the missing “shabu” (crystal meth), allegedly smuggled into the country through four magnetic lifters in GMA, Cavite, is estimated to be worth P11 billion — significantly higher than his previous estimate of P6.8 billion.

Aquino said he was interviewed by a reporter of an international media network who told him that no country has ever won the fight against illegal drugs.

“I told him that I think the Philippines can. This international media laughed at me, and I told him that maybe the Philippines is the first country that would win the war on drugs,” he said in a news forum.

Aquino said the PDEA remains unfazed in fighting drug syndicates, even if it is just a “small agency” in the government.

“I am still positive that despite all these, kung hindi ko man mahinto ay malaking porsyento ang nabawas ko sa paglaganap ng illegal na droga sa ating bansa,” he said.

(I am still positive that despite all these, even if I fail to stop the illegal drug trade, I have slashed a big percentage on the spread of illegal drugs in the country.)

PDEA’s latest data showed that almost 5,000 drug personalities were killed while over 150,000 others were arrested in 110,395 anti-drug operations from July 2016 to September 2018. Authorities said most of the slain suspects resisted police arrest.

Critics of the government’s anti-drug war, however, claim that the fatalities were intentionally perpetrated by the authorities.