President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday fired Dangerous Drugs Board Chairman Benjamin Reyes for citing a different figure on the number of drug users, which contradicted the President’s “four-million” drug addicts backed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
In a speech after his trip from Russia was cut short after declaring martial law in Mindanao, Duterte said Reyes is not the “implementor of the law” after he gave a figure of only 1.8-million drug users in the country.
“And I would like to put to task publicly this Reyes. You know five years ago, Santiago who was the PDEA chief gave us a figure of three million,” Duterte said. “What Reyes is giving as chairman of Dangerous [Drugs] Board … that’s 1.8 [million]. What I have been telling everybody, that there’s about four-million drug addict,” he said. “And here comes a chairman, you’re fired today get out of the service. You do not contradict your own government. You’re there not… you’re just a civilian member of a board,” he added.
During a human rights forum at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, Reyes cited the 2015 Nationwide Survey on the Nature and Extent of Drug Abuse in the Philippines conducted by the DDB, the policymaking body of the government on drugs, released late last year which showed that the number of drug users were only at 1.8 million, but it could reach as high as three million based on the margin of error, still significantly lower than the newest estimate.
In an earlier interview, Reyes said the discrepancies are valid because of different bases.
Duterte maintained that the correct estimate is at 4.7 million drug personalities, the highest figure since the launching the drug war last July.
“You are not the implementor of the law. The correct count is the Police and the PDEA. Ibigay mo lang [1.8] dala-dala ‘nong ano, ‘nong nag-announce doon sa– There is too much interference, with the advent of human rights, lahat ng gobyerno pinapakailaman ninyo,
“PDEA director General Isidro Lapeña earlier said that the higher figure is “more reflective” of the real situation of the drug problem, Duterte said.