Director Wardley Getalla of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) says they are willing to release an inventory of all confiscated drugs in their operations to the Cebu City Council after careful study of their legal team. | Delta Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines —The war on drugs is on its way to success, but it is neither a failure nor a 100 percent success.
Director Wardley Getalla, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas chief, said this to debunk critics’ claims that the government’s campaign against illegal drugs had failed.
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Getalla said that the war on drug was on its way to success but with a little more coordination and help from the community and the government.
“Kung paiiralin pa yung coordination, collaboration with other government agencies with LGUs (local government units), talagang papunta na tayo sa tinatawag nating ‘success’,” said Getalla during a press briefing at the PDEA-7 headquarters in Sudlon, Barangay Lahug, Cebu City on January 14, 2020.
(If we continue to coordinate and collaborate with the other government agencies and LGUs, we would be heading towards that goal that we call success.)
Getalla said that their agency had a different indicator to measure whether the campaign against drugs had been a failure or a success.
Among them are the programs on drug clearing and the overall status of the crime index dating from 2016 to 2019.
He said that out of the 3,003 barangays in Region 7 alone, they had already declared 855 barangays as drug free by the end of 2019.
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He also noted a decrease in crimes committed which was at 11,000 recorded incidents in 2016 and decreased to 5,000 reported incidents in 2019.
Getalla said that the decrease in crimes would also mean a decrease of the infamous drug personalities.
“Alam naman natin na itong drugs ang (we all know that drugs) usually are the cause of other crimes,” said Getalla.
Although there would seem to be an endless supply of drugs including in Region 7, Getalla said, they were still making progress and were moving forward which would show in their record.
“Medyo mahirap lang talaga ang laban na ito kaya kailangan ng tulong pa ng local government at ng community,” said Getalla.
(This is a difficult fight that is why we need the help of the local government and the community.)/dbs