The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has trimmed down by 52 percent its list of drug suspects killed over the period July 2022 to September 2023.
A PDEA report showed that its agents killed only 19 suspects during the same period, not 40 as previously reported.
On the other hand, PDEA asserted its agents apprehended a total of 64,862 drug suspects, slightly higher compared to 64,143 arrests in the same period from 2020 to 2021as reported earlier.
PDEA Director General Moro Virgilio Lazo, in a statement, said the agency’s renewed drug approach is in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s anti-drug campaign which is geared towards community rehabilitation, going after drug syndicates and getting rid of unscrupulous officials.
The anti-drug agency said confiscated shabu increased from 2,349 kilograms in 2020-2021 to 3,795 kgs during 47,076 anti-illegal drug operations conducted from July 2022 to September 2023.
Last Friday, the PDEA destroyed nearly P6 billion worth of dangerous drugs and “controlled precursors and essential chemicals (CPECs)” at the Integrated Waste Management, Inc. in Barangay Aguado, Trece Martires City, Cavite.
Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos said the destruction of the illegal drugs “had saved thousands of young people from the road to perdition.”
Abalos commended the PDEA and the Philippine National Police and the different drug enforcement units for their perseverance and hard work in the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign.
He also urged the government’s drug enforcement units to “relentlessly go after big syndicates to significantly reduce the supply of illegal drugs in the country.”