'Humane' anti-drug policy lauded

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said that the more humane anti-drug policy of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has proven effective in diminishing abuses committed by law enforcers.

Barbers added that the current administration's «bloodless» drug campaign has achieved more without resorting to extrajudicial killings.

«In the past, the campaign against illegal drugs was like a game wherein many individuals suspected as drug pushers or users were killed without due process,» he said in Filipino.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert 'Ace” Barbers TMT FILE PHOTO

Marcos, in his third State of the Nation Address on Monday, reported that his administration's war on drugs has yielded P44 billion worth of narcotics and led to the arrest of 97,000 drug personalities, 6,000 of whom were high value targets. The apprehended perpetrators include 440 government employees, 42 uniformed personnel, and 77 elected officials.

He added that campaign has resulted in the freezing of assets of suspected big-time drug traffickers amounting to more than P500 million, as well as a conviction rate of 79 percent of perpetrators charged in court.

He added that his drug campaign would «adhere and continue to adhere to the established aegis of anti-illegal drug policy and that extermination was never one of them.»

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Reports on the bloody drug war of former president Rodrigo Duterte showed that there were 6,229 drug personalities perished via extrajudicial killings as of March 2022, while human rights groups estimated that 20,000 civilians were killed during the campaign.

Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said that the panel is working to amend certain provisions of Republic Act 9165, or the Dangerous Drugs Act to «refine further and identify its flaws and loopholes, to effectively carry out the government's anti-drug campaign, particularly against protectors, coddlers and financiers.»