The government’s all-out war against illegal drugs has resulted in the dismantling of 853 drug dens and shabu laboratories from June 2016 to July 2021.
Based on the latest data released by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency yesterday, 835 were drug dens and 18 were clandestine shabu laboratories while various types of illegal drugs, all worth P62.22 billion, were seized.
The amount included 8,134.61 kilos of shabu with an estimated street value of P51.33 billion.
A total of 12,849 high-value targets across the country were also arrested from July 1, 2016 to July 31, 2021.
The figure included 5,443 HVTs arrested from high impact operations, 3,634 target-listed suspects, 1,291 drug den maintainers, 784 drug group leaders/members, 494 government employees, 388 elected officials, 319 foreigners, 283 included on wanted lists, 119 uniformed personnel, 72 armed group members, and 22 prominent personalities.
Authorities also arrested 303,154 individuals involved in other illegal drug activities.
As of July 2021, the consolidated report showed that 6,181 drug suspects died during 210,312 anti-illegal drug operations.
Authorities also arrested 3,869 minors, broken down into 2,276 pushers, 937 possessors, 424 users, 203 visitors of drug den, nine drug den maintainers, 15 drug den employees, two cultivators, one laboratory employee, and two runners.
At least 22,585 out of the 42,045 barangays have been declared drug-cleared as of July 2021 after the issuance of a certification by members of the Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug-Clearing Program.
MAINTAIN THE GAINS
The Philippine National Police also vowed to maintain the gains it achieved in addressing criminality and illegal drugs throughout the Duterte administration.
This was after Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said the peace and order situation in the country has improved under the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We welcome the statement made by Secretary Andanar,” PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said, adding that improvement of peace and order was supported by the PNP data and public perception “because they experienced it in the last five years.”
“The challenge now is how to sustain it and this is the reason why we keep on implementing aggressive reforms and security adjustments to continuously deny criminal elements and other threat groups from preying on our kababayan. The PNP vows to sustain the gains made by this administration in achieving peace and order. We will not waste it,” he added.
Andanar said crime volume in the country has already decreased by at least 64 percent since Duterte took power, adding that the heightened efforts against criminality and illegal drugs have contributed to this achievement.
The PNP has been saying even before that most of the crimes in the country are connected to the use of illegal drugs. This was proven by the sudden decrease in crime when aggressive anti-illegal drugs operations were conducted since July 2016.
INTERNAL CLEANSING
Eleazar pledged that the organization would continue its mandate of protecting the public against lawless elements, adding that this includes the aggressive internal cleansing as part of the Intensified Cleanliness Policy.
A total of 5,240 erring policemen were dismissed from the service since Duterte assumed the presidency, 163 of those were kicked out of the service since May 8 this year when Eleazar was appointed as chief PNP.
He also urged the public to cooperate and work with authorities in attaining the goal of having a peaceful society that is free from atrocities.
“For now, we are not just focusing on peace and order as we will continue to be part of our government’s goal against Covid-19 amid the ever-increasing number of cases in recent days,” Eleazar said.*PNA
